strange z-80 / CP/M box

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Tue May 12 16:46:43 1998

On Tue, 12 May 1998, K.S. (Tall Texan) Haley wrote:

> Our student IEEE group saved the following from a dumpster.
> a Paradynamics PRONTO computer. This thing is the size of
> a small beige filing cabinet and holds 2 8 inch drives.
>
> the guy we got it from said it had 48K of RAM and 2 10 Meg
> hard drives. It has a sticker for a place called Balcones
> Computers in Austin which is where this probably came from.

Paradynamics was well known in the S-100 heyday for selling rather
innovative and high priced main frames (boxes) in which to house
them. They had some nice features, but could also be a real b***h
for access. Balcones did some contract operating system software
work for Xerox, amongst others. But, I cannot say that I am familiar
with the machine that you describe.

It would probably be worth seeing if you can identify the maker of
the S-100 cards in it. Most makers were not bashful about putting
their names on their products, though some of the busy ones posed a
challenge in finding it because the chip density was so high.

> a quick check showed that it has a 1200 baud hayes s-100
> buss modem in it and we have 1 vt-100 compatible terminal
> for it.
>
> does anyone remember seeing one of these beasts? a lot of the
> disks have suffered bit rot, but I think we do have 1 working
> boot disk.
>
> E-MAIL privately (if you think this is off topic) becase I
> need to know how long to leave the bootdisk in. Is it
> necessary ie: is it like DOS but everything is an external
> command and requires the floppy.

Such commands as DIR(ectory), TYPE, ERA(se) are internal commands.
However, on completion the o/s normally looks for the CCP (Command
Control Processor) and may hang if the disk is not present.
 
> thx in advane.
>
> I think we also acquired an IBM 5100.
> This animal was without docs, but it boots to basic and has
> a small mono screen and twin 8 inch drives. All the logic is
> in one housing with the screen. I know someone was asking
> around about such a computer recently.
>
> *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6
> As the astronomers unanimously teach, the circuit of the
> whole earth, which to us seems endless, compared with the
> greatness of the universe has the likeness of a mere point.
> --Ammianus Marcellinius ( 330-395 AD)
> the last major Roman historian in "The Chronicle of Events"
> ***** haleyk_at_okstate.edu ***** ***** ***** ends.
>

                                                 - don

    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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Received on Tue May 12 1998 - 16:46:43 BST

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