Data General/NeXT/Philips

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Thu Jul 1 18:00:45 1999

> In particular I've heard mention of a DG MicroNOVA which sounds like it might
> fit the bill in terms of size.

microNovas are hind to find these days, unlike microVAXen or the
"micro"PDP-11s. I have only ever seen two (both of which I owned at one
point). They were both MP/100s - the 2nd flavor to come out - and was
based around a Nova on a 40-pin chip. The previous version was simply
called "microNova" and had a detachable control panel that looked an
awful lot like a calculator of the day (1977 or so). The succeeding
version, after the MP/100, was the MP/200 and used a much faster
multichip processor. There was also a microNova/Dasher combination called
the MPT/100 - probably DG's answer to DEC's PDT series. I am not sure
when that came out.

Cheesy little boxes, them microNovas. The interface to the drive was
interesting, being a simple 16 conductor ribbon cable (obviously VERY
serial!).

If size is an issue, get yourself a real Nova, like a 4, or maybe an
Eclipse. They are around, if you look long and hard for one. In fact, I
am looking into buying a bunch of DG stuff, including a Nova clone(!).
Anyway, they are not much bigger than microNovas.

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Thu Jul 01 1999 - 18:00:45 BST