On Fri, 26 Jun 1998, Doug Spence wrote:
>
> I finally went back to check on that "Wang PC-002" I asked about earlier.
> It was a bit more scratched up, but it hadn't moved an inch in the past
> two and a half(?) weeks.
>
> I managed to locate its keyboard, as well as the keyboard for an aparently
> keyboardless Tandy 1000TX that was in another part of the building, so I
> decided to drag the Wang machine home.
**** Agony deleted ****
**** Begin Ecstacy ****
> Anyway, it sure is a curious beast. And HUGE, to my eyes. It's not quite
> as big as I reported before, but it's BIG. The closest offhand and
> possibly innacurate comparison I could make is to a friend's MicroVax, but
> I don't know what kind of MicroVax that is.
>
> If I sit it vertically (a position the box looks very comfortable in), it
> measures about 15" high, by 6.5" wide, by 23" long.
>
> It has two floppy drives mounted in the front: one half-height 5.25"
> drive, and one full-hieght 5.25" drive.
>
> In the back, I can see the backs of various cards. One of them has the
> connector for the keyboard (4-pin DIN) as well as one serial and one
> parallel port, so it must be the motherboard. Beside that (or above,
> depending on orientation) is a board with a sticker reading "PM032-B 512K
> Memory Expansion". Next to that, is what appears to be an empty slot, and
> then there is what appears to be some kind of networking card. It has two
> coaxial cable connectors and a toggle switch. There is another card
> beside (or above) that, with no ports or labels, but I can see chips
> through the air holes. Beside (or above) the mystery card is a board with
> a label reading "PM101 IBM Mono Emulation". It has an 8-pin DIN connector
> and a 5-pin DIN connector, which I would guess are for monitor and PC
> keyboard(?).
>
> Does anyone know the pinouts of the various ports, or anything else about
> this machine? Will it read PC disks or do I need to boot it up with some
> wacky Wang-format disk? Does the machine require some kind of terminal,
> or will a monitor connect into the back of the IBM Emulation board and let
> me see what's going on?
Cannot help on the pinouts, but I think their monitor connector was
unique. You need to boot it with Wang disks. They are in PC format,
but the DOS is different. I have a set that I can copy when you get
video going.
As I recall, the IBM Emulator board really hacks the WangDOS to be more
like PCDOS and it will then run many - but not all - PCDOS programs.
Don't believe the D-subs on the back are for monitor and keyboard, but it
may be a different board than I ever saw.
> The sticker on the side (top) of the machine says it's a PC-002, but the
> sticker on the back says it's a PC-P002.
>
> The keyboard has a lot of word processing functions on it.
That is what Wang really got established in.
> Anyway, I haven't opened it up yet, or done anything with it but look at
> it. Disassembly looks like it might be difficult, because I have to slip
> the innards through the full length metal sleeve. I won't be up to that
> until my arms recover. I've even got bruises and some kind of blood
> blisters or something, from carrying that thing. :/
Stand it up on its face and lift the cover off. Everything inside is in
a heavy guage wire frame.
- don
> I probably won't have time to play with it today as I promised to install
> NetBSD 1.3.2 and some UNIX software on my Amiga 3000 instead of coming to
> work. (And look at the time. :) )
>
>
> Doug Spence
> ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
> http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
>
>
donm_at_cts.com
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Don Maslin - Keeper of the Dina-SIG CP/M System Disk Archives
Chairman, Dina-SIG of the San Diego Computer Society
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Sysop - Elephant's Graveyard (CP/M) - 619-454-8412
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Received on Fri Jun 26 1998 - 19:46:23 BST