followup: Rinky dink hamfest

From: Merle K. Peirce <at258_at_osfn.org>
Date: Mon Mar 29 09:55:24 1999

All my Xeroxes are in the museum collection now, although I still have
one set up at home. Absolutely my favourite CP/M machine, the QX-10
notwithstanding. I might be able to find dos 1.25, but it would take
awile. C: is a ramdisk. Don must have it at his fingertips. We're in
the middle of renovations and it's impossible to find anything.

On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Joe wrote:

> At 08:40 AM 3/29/99 -0500, you wrote:
> >Joe, CP/M-80 is 2.2,
>
> I looked throgh the XEROX manuals last night. There's a separate manual
> for 2.2, CPM-80 and CPM 86 and MS-DOS 2. 2.2 is the oldest in this bunch.
>
> > and real computers don't need more than 64K...
>
> Yeah I know but 128K is nice to have.
> >
> >The 820, at least the later ones, used big 984K discs. I hardly ever ran
> >out of space. There was an 8 meg rigid drive available too, but I neever
> >filled that up either. WordStar on the 820 just grinds along, and works
> >very satisfyingly.
>
> I got new manaul and 8" disk with WS 3.3. Also D-Base II and some other
> stuff.
>
> > At least 3 word processing packages were avialable
> >plus business graphics, multiplan, quite a few programming languages.
> >XWP wasn't so great, apparently a primitive WordStar, WordStar was superb
> >if cryptic, and there was another nice one, a bit glitzy and modern for
> >my taste, but put WordPerfect to shame, but hey, even a blank screen does
> >that. Don Maislin may remember the name, he likes that particular
> >programme. Ran very well on 5-1/4 inch drives.
> >
> >There was a memory expansion available for the 16/8, but I've never seen it.
> >The DEM-II is interesting because the card rack is very like the NEC APC-II.
> >
> >Incidentally, Hyperion's DOS 1.25 runs circles around the Xerox DOS 2.0.
>
> Do you know where I can find a copy of that? Do you still have any of
> your XEROXs? I think I have the CPU portion of an 820-II here but no
> drives (or the controller/daughter board) and no keyboard. The drives and
> keyboard should be a problem but the controller is.
>
> Joe
> >
> >On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Joe wrote:
> >
> >> Merle,
> >>
> >> At 10:24 PM 3/28/99 -0500, Merle wrote:
> >> >The 16/8 is an interesting machine. It came in 2 versions, the earliest
> >> >with 8" Shugart drives, a later with a DEM-II expansion case housing
> >> >5-1/4 inch drives. The CP/M-86 is not bad, but the MS-DOS is...well
> >> >MS-DOS.
> >>
> >> Not surprising considering it's only ver 2.0 . At least that's what I
> >> got in this load.
> >>
> >> > Incredibly primitive compared to CP/M 2.2.
> >>
> >> I don't know that much about CPM but this machine only has CPM-80 and
> >> CPM-86. How do they compare to CP/M 2.2?
> >>
> >> One problem is that
> >> >many were shipped with 128K memory. With the dinky drives, the machines
> >> >are disappointing. The old 8" 820-II is a far better and more usable
> >> >machine.
> >>
> >> Better than the 16/8? I thought it was newer. How much memory did the
> >> 820-II have?
> >>
> >> Thanks for the info.
> >> Joe
> >>
> >> >
> >> >On Sun, 28 Mar 1999, Joe wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Today I went to see a couple of the people that I meet at yesterday's
> >> >> hamfest. One of them used to service XEROX computers. He told me
> that he
> >> >> threw out three rooms full of old XEROX computers less than a year
> ago. :-(
> >> >> He gave me part of the stuff that he had left, I have to take a Truck
> >> >> (note capital) back to get the rest (estimated at two cubic yards but no
> >> >> complete machines). So far I've found lots of docs and 8" flopppy disks
> >> >> for the 820 and 16/8. The 16/8 looks pretty interesting, it ran CPM,
> >> >> CPM-86 and MS-DOS. Does anyone have one of these? What's your
> opinion of
> >> >> them?
> >> >>
> >> >> He has a floppy disk drive control box to manual operate 3.5",
> 5.25" and
> >> >> 8" drives during alignment. Anyone have an idea of what one of these is
> >> >> worth with the alignment disks and manuals?
> >> >>
> >> >> Alos found a Lisa mouse to go with the Lisa that I got yesterday.
> >> >>
> >> >> Joe
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >M. K. Peirce
> >> >Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
> >> >215 Shady Lea Road,
> >> >North Kingstown, RI 02852
> >> >
> >> >"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
> >> >
> >> > - Ovid
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >
> >M. K. Peirce
> >Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
> >215 Shady Lea Road,
> >North Kingstown, RI 02852
> >
> >"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
> >
> > - Ovid
> >
> >
>
>

M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
215 Shady Lea Road,
North Kingstown, RI 02852

"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
              
              - Ovid
Received on Mon Mar 29 1999 - 09:55:24 BST