What's a Xerox 83D?

From: Captain Napalm <spc_at_armigeron.com>
Date: Mon Feb 16 01:37:01 1998

It was thus said that the Great Tony Duell once stated:
>
> The machine is a Xerox 83D (or at least that's what it says on the
> nameplate) - I can find no other markings on it, and it appears to be a
> workstation of some sort.
>
> It's a brown plastic tower case, a little larger than a large PC tower.
> It's _very_ modular. On the back there are 5 blanking plates the full
> height of the cabinet, with 5 slots behind them. They contain, from the
> left :

  This sounds very much like the machine sitting next to me, which has no
markings of any type to show what it is. Unfortunately, the monitor doesn't
work and I'm missing the adapter for the harddrive. Other than that, I do
have all the parts.

> Slot C2 is empty.

  Module C2 contains many small chips (41257Ps (memory?), much 74 series and
one large gate array. Maybe just a memory board?

> To the right of the cardcage there's a plastic door that folds down.
  Ah, the door must have fallen off of mine.

> Behind it are 2 more modules - C6 is the power supply (which goes through
> to the front of the case, and also carries the power switch), while C7
> is the hard disk. That's a standard 20Mbyte Seagate ST506-like unit (an
> ST225 or something) on a bracket.

  And I'm missing the bracket.

> The monitor is monochrome, and about 17". It connects to the display
> connector on module C1 and also to the keyboard connector on C4. There's
> a 5 pin DIN socket on the base of the monitor for the keyboard (which I
> don't have). There's also a beeper in the monitor base.

  Well, my monitor doesn't work, but I do have the mouse and keyboard.
 
> I've also got 2 modules that seem to stack on top of the unit, and
> connect to the 'floppy' connector. One contains a 5.25" floppy drive (no
> idea as to the density, etc). The other contains a QIC tape drive, which
> seems to have a floppy interface. I can provide module numbers of the
> mecahnisms if it would help.

  And I have a floppy unit external as well.
 
> Any ideas as to what it is, and where to find a keyboard for it?

  Any ideas as to where we can get more information would be good too.

  -spc (In South Florida if that makes any difference ... )
Received on Mon Feb 16 1998 - 01:37:01 GMT