Arium, UNIX, and other strange things. . .

From: jeff.kaneko_at_juno.com <(jeff.kaneko_at_juno.com)>
Date: Thu Jun 22 20:05:31 2000

On Thu, 22 Jun 2000 17:02:44 -0400 (EDT) "Merle K. Peirce"
<at258_at_osfn.org> writes:
> On Thu, 22 Jun 2000, Jeffrey l Kaneko wrote:
>
> Yes, I expect it is. It's the only Unix portable I've seen. Very
> blue, very heavy.

Well you know, there a bunch of odd coincidences that revolve around
Arium, American Automation (now American Arium), the Regulus OS,
and the SS-50 bus (of all things).

It goes like this:

American Automation was a maker of ICE's and development stations in the
early 1980's. One of their products was called the EZPro-- it was a
general development system that could be equipped with a variety of
ICE's (I own a processor unit; I never located the 68000 ICE that came
with it originally).

Anyways, The EZPro was based on the 6802 CPU, and it used the SS=50
bus! It is the only piece of test/development equipment I have ever
seen or heard that used this bus. Around 1985, I contacted these guys,
and got a full set of prints for my system, and a couple of 8"
floppies with the OS, along with the source for the ROMs.

They told me that most of their EZ-Pro hardware had been *thrown out*
a few *weeks* earlier, that I could have had it, had I asked.
Ever seen a grown man cry?

They showed me their new product, I can't remember the name, but they
mentioned that it still used the ss-50 bus. I remember now that it
looked very similar to a product made by . . .

Smoke Signal Broadcasting (SSB), which made a 68000 based product
called the VAR. This thing ran Regulus, and was supposed to be
very good for real-time processing. SSB, if anyone remembers,
used to make a very nice line of SS-50 machines (The Chieftain).

Fast foreward about ten years, and Arium merges with American Automation
to become American Arium. I wonder if Arium based their earlier products

on the SSB VAR.
 
Spooky, huh?

>
> > On Thu, 22 Jun 2000 15:22:05 -0400 (EDT) "Merle K. Peirce"
> > <at258_at_osfn.org> writes:
> > > We have an Arium machine running Aegis Regulus. Is this a
> version of
> > ^^^^^
> > Arium?!!? I wonder if it is the same Arium that made ICE's
> > and development stations in the early-to-mid 80's.
> >
> > JUst curious: That wouldn't be a 680x0 machine, would it?
> >
> > I remember an OS that ran on 680x0 platforms that was
> > marketed at about that time called 'Regulus'.
> >
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________
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>
> M. K. Peirce
> Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
> 215 Shady Lea Road,
> North Kingstown, RI 02852
>
> "Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
>
> - Ovid
>

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Received on Thu Jun 22 2000 - 20:05:31 BST

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