Hi,
I finally brought home the Compupro CPU box. I'm surprised how clean it
is. It looks like new. The only thing I found wrong so far is one wire
broken off of the backup battery holder. Here's what's in it:
21 slot backplane, #194 Disk 3 card (hard drive controller), Disk 1A card
(5 1/4 and 8" floppy drive controller), #187 Interfacer 4 card (parallel
and triple serial ports), #162 System Support 1 card (serial port to
terminal, interupt controller, RTC, Math Co, 4K SRAM, etc), CPU 8085/88
card (both 8088 and 8085 CPUs), #816 RAM 22 card (with 256K SRAM), two RAM
23 cards with 128K SRAM each.
I dug through my manuals and found manuals for the Interfacer 4, RAM 23,
CPU 8085/88 and System Support 1 cards. I still need manuals for the
chassis, RAM 22 and both disk controller cards. BTW I have extra copies of
the above 4 manuals. I'll trade them for the manuals I need.
At 12:36 PM 5/8/99 -0400, you wrote:
>> I picked up a Compupro 816 computer yesterday and an external drive unit
>>with a hard drive and an 8" floppy drive. I haven't brought it home yet so
>>I haven't taken more than a quick look at it. Can anyone tell be about the
>>computer and drive? What CPU, speed, etc. What kind of operating system it
>>uses, etc.
>
>If it's using the same CPU's it shipped with, it has a 8085A and a
>8088A on a 85/88 CPU board. Speed is 2 or 5 MHz, depending on what
>the big red switch labeled "SPEED" on the CPU board is set at.
There's no red switch or anything marked "speed" on this card. FWIW the
CPUs are 8088-1 and D8085AH-1.
>
>Of course, it's a S-100 box, so just about anything could have been
>dropped in at either the factory (special-order), the Compupro dealer,
>or by the end user.
>
>Typically the system either ran CP/M-80, CP/M-86, or a special
>Compupro version that was basically CP/M-86 but would also run 8-bit
>executables on the 8085.
>
>There were many aftermarket CPU's available, some with 80286's on them
>and 8 MHz Z-80's, that were commonly dropped into Compupro chassis.
>
>> I don't see a keyboard or video connectors so I assume it needs
>>a terminal to talk to it.
>
>Very likely, yes. Most likely, it has a System Support 1 board
>with console serial port, clock, and interrupt controllers. But there
>are lots of other ways to set up a S-100 system.
>
>> Does any have a pinout of the serial port so I
>>can make a terminal cable.
>
>Look for a 25-pin cable from the System Support 1. It's plain old
>RS-232. Depending on which OS and version you run, and how it was
>generated, you might need to assert DTR.
>
>> What size is the hard and floppy drives
>
>You tell us :-). A Compupro 816 most likely shipped with a Qume
>Datatrack DSDD 8" floppy drive, a bit over a Megabyte, most likely
>hooked to a Disk 1 (or 1A or 1B or 1C) controller in the S-100 chassis.
>The hard drive is likely a MFM drive, anywhere between 5 and 30 Megabytes,
>hooked to a Disk 3. Again, just about anything was orderable/configurable.
I haven't brought home the drive box so I don't know what's in it yet.
>
>> does
>>the floppy drive use hard sectored disks, etc etc, etc.
>
>Almost certainly soft-sectored disks.
>
>> I noticed that
>>there are connectors for both a 5.25" and an 8" floppy drives and another
>>for a hard drive on the back of the CPU box. Does anyone have a manual or
>>the OS software for one of these?
>
>Sure. I bought out the last Canadian Compupro dealer while I was in
>Vancouver and have manuals, configuration software, etc. Let us know
>what's *in* your box and you'll get more details.
OK It's listed above. Thanks.
Joe
>
>--
> Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
> Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
> 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
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>
Received on Fri May 14 1999 - 13:31:45 BST