Altos 586

From: James L. Rice <jrice_at_texoma.net>
Date: Sat Sep 5 11:05:00 1998

A lot of Altos systems ran Xenix in a multiuser system with text
terminals served at each port. Very popular in dentist and medical
offices.

James

Allison J Parent wrote:
>
> < It is not obvious what it is. Has a 5 1/4" floppy and a hard drive, an 8
> < cpu and about 6 or so Z80's. There are no obvious monitor or keyboard
> < connections, just connections marked port 1, port 2.... to port 6 and a
> < number marked as being hard drive expansions and one marked as "Altos ne
>
> Of course ther are no monitor or keyboard plugs... Thats a PC thing. ;)
>
> It expected serial terminals like vt100 or ADM3s and the like.
>
> < The copyright marks on the boards are marked 1982.
> <
> < Anyone know what this is? A 1982 server perhaps?
>
> No, server is a newer concept. It was an integrated multiuser system
> where there was one CPU (Z80) per user and likely ran CP/M, MPM (or clone
> like turbodos). The 8086 was likely a local server for disks and such to
> the local z80s. They all used the bus as a physically short network to
> exchange data.
>
> Allison
Received on Sat Sep 05 1998 - 11:05:00 BST