followup: Rinky dink hamfest

From: Merle K. Peirce <at258_at_osfn.org>
Date: Mon Mar 29 15:20:39 1999

When I find things, I'll try to remember to make a copy of 1.25 for you.

As I recall, Xerox DOS is a little strange, but it may be the boot blcoks.

On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Don Maslin wrote:

> On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Merle K. Peirce wrote:
>
> >
> > 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
>
> No, regrettably, I do not have anything for it but 2.0. I do have some
> earlier versions of DOS for PCs, but do not know whether they would
> function on the 16/8.
> - don
>
> > 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
> >
> >
>
> donm_at_cts.com
> *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
> Don Maslin - Keeper of the Dina-SIG CP/M System Disk Archives
> Chairman, Dina-SIG of the San Diego Computer Society
> Clinging tenaciously to the trailing edge of technology.
> Sysop - Elephant's Graveyard (CP/M) Z-Node 9 - 619-454-8412
> *--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
> see old system support at http://www.psyber.com/~tcj/
> visit the "Unofficial" CP/M Web site at http://www.devili.iki.fi/cpm/
> with Mirror at http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cfs/cpm/
>
>
>

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 - 15:20:39 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:32:22 BST