Scientific Micro Systems

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Tue May 18 09:22:48 1999

SMS was the maker of a number of 8X300-based FDC's. These were about 10x12"
things with loads of TTL, normally bounted in a 17x18x15" (wxlxh) cast
aluminum-framed case with a clipped-on aluminum shell, often painted
off-white or beige, in which there were two 8" drives. The boards had
numbers like FDC300 or FT400, and were interfaced via a req/ack handshake
and 8-bit data on a 50-conductor cable. The models (300 & 400) with which
I'm familiar, were single-sided, but the FDC of the 400 supported
double-density. The interface protococ was at the sector or track level,
i.e. it was simple and based on commands like "read the next sector" or
format the next track, with much less fiddling than with the WD or NEC
FDC's. Their HDC's worked more or less like the bridge controllers from
other vendors.

SMS was the original developer of the 8X300 microcontroller, produced for
them by Signetics. They later produced FDC's and HDC's under the name OMTI.

I may still have doc's for the ones I had, though I remember at least one of
the manuals got a mite wet some time back.

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_netwiz.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 7:21 AM
Subject: Scientific Micro Systems


>In my scrap yard looking I came across a batch of circuit boards near some
>old 8" floppy drives (Shugart, Qume, etc. and all bad I think, or
>troublesome) and I am wondering if they mean anything to anybody. They are
>large, maybe 11x17 or more, and the name on them is Scientific Micro
>Systems. The only connector I remember is a about a 4" wide edge connector
>on one end of the board in the middle.
>
>
Received on Tue May 18 1999 - 09:22:48 BST