>
> 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.
>
> NOT an easy job. It was about a mile to the nearest subway station, with
> lots of broken escalators up and down once I got into the system. And I
> was carrying a large book bag full of stuff I have to look over for work.
>
> By the time the bus dropped me off near home, we were in the middle of a
> thunder storm. So I left the computer on top of someone's gate post (wide
> brick thing with flat cement top) under some trees near the bus stop, and
> made a run for home (about a half-mile).
>
> I went back with the car as soon as I got home.
>
Well my Wang PC2 rescue wasn't quite so harassing , eight blocks in cold
weather without gloves but since the drives had been pulled the partition made
a convenient handle and it was probably quite a bit lighter. Even so I do seem
to be able to scratch my knee now without bending.
> 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.
>
Yup, thats the beast. Mine is labelled Model PC-S3-2 .
Now you've gone and done it. I was compelled to dig it out and once
more face the monster, leaving my more mundane tasks of turning
my 5150 into an awesome Win 95ers confronter.
> It has two floppy drives mounted in the front: one half-height 5.25"
> drive, and one full-hieght 5.25" drive.
>
Mine were pulled and on the bottom of one of the empty bays it has plug-in
instructions. Get back to that later.
> 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.
Its an L-shaped board extending the length of the case the L surrounds the PS.
> Beside that ( or above > depending on orientation) is a board with a sticker
> reading "PM032-B 512K Memory Expansion".
My next card's sticker reads " PM021/022-B Winchester controller "and has
blue 34 pin and 20 pin M sockets.
> 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(?).
>
In mine the 2nd card is the PM101. No networking card. My 3rd card is cabled
to the second by edge-card connectors. I would imagine this is your mystery
card. Likely emulator related. But if it doesn't have the cabling I also have a
mystery card, onlymine is related to PC emu. : ^ ))
All 5 slots are filled in mine. My 4th card is identical to the second only the
connectors are black. Another winchester controller.
My top card has a red lamp (not a LED) I forget what they're called , about
half the board is empty traces and it has a string of 18 Motorola MCM 6665AP20
some low-power Schotskys and appears to be some kind of circuit controller.
it has a chip labelled Bellpage 8321 with VCC Out 1-3 ,In 1-3 and grnd.
> 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?
>
I searched for info on this machine cause Wang was as innovative in his own
way as Woz. He never locked into one particular manufacturer and his machines
like this one has , as you will discover if you get down to the MB, Motorola,
Zilog, Intel ,and whatever he could use.
The Wang community of collectors focus fervently on the CPM machines and
the PC's seem to be pretty much ignored. There are quite a few sites devoted to
the CPM Wang. A pretty inbred community. Reminds me of the TRS people
that ignore the model 2.
There's a Wang Users Group in England that seems fairly active and they have a
Web page with a few PD programs and some history but they want $40 or so to
access their archives. They give a history of the machines but the PC's get
short shrift. I was able to somehow access a setup program for the PC and I'll
e-mail it to you. For obvious reasons I was not able to check it out. As a
matter of fact I insist you check it out . : ^ ))
Sam Ismail , mentioned he had acquired one, and Don Maislin knows something
about them. IIRC Sam also has manuals and disks for them but I imagine with the
Vintage Festival coming up he hasn't much time to explore new machines.
> 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.
>
I'm sure eventually a KB will turn up for mine.
> 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. :/
>
Actually it slips quite easily out of the case. The boards are mounted like
PC boards with one screw, only much bigger like S-100 boards.
When you do disassemble it there are 2 34 pin older style connectors on
the MB above two slots leading to the drive bays.. In mine I can find no floppy
connectors. Were there also 34 pin winchester floppies ? Let me know what your
FDD's are connected to. I will vicariously follow your progress. And if I have
an extra HD controller maybe we can trade it for a FDD controlller
> 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. :) )
So much to do , so little time.
At least my kids are grown.
>
> Doug Spence
> ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
> http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
>
AAAhh Montreal I remember when it was an international city. not
a provincial capital.
ciao larry
>
lwalker_at_interlog.com
Received on Fri Jun 26 1998 - 17:29:59 BST