Altos machines

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Mon Mar 27 19:23:57 2000

On Sun, 26 Mar 2000 Innfogra_at_aol.com wrote:

There was also a 486 that came packaged in a neat tan desktop case that
was smaller than a PC. It had a single half high floppy and a single
half high hard drive and ran Concurrent CP/M-86. Supporting three
users, IIRC. I also have a recall of it being 80186 based, but could be
wrong on that one.
                                                 - don

> Altos machines came in several generations.
>
> 1st Generation
>
> Altos 5-ZZ where ZZ was the size of the HD. These were Z80 machines with 5
> 1/4 inch drives. These are small rectangular desktop boxes.
>
> Altos 8XXX-ZZ was a large heavy rectangular desktop box with Z80s or 68000
> CPUs. These were generally multiuser machines. ZZ again refers to the size of
> the 8" HD(10=10 Meg, 12=20 Meg, 14=40 Meg HDs). They used a large custom
> single board computer the size of the case. The drive controller was a
> separate half card mounted on top of the SBC. The early 8000s had separate
> cases for the 8" FD & HD. In later models the drives and cards were
> integrated in the same case. I think the 68000 processor machines were
> labeled 68XX-ZZ but it has been too long to be sure. I also think the 68000
> machines ran an early version of Xenix. You could get them in versions up to
> 9 users and a supervisor.
>
> 2nd Generation
>
> Altos 5XX & 6XX class machines. These looked like squashed hexagons, flat on
> the bottom and top with two angles on each side. These were medium sized
> desktop cases, usually beige but often came in custom colors. They carried on
> the two circuit card configuration. Large SBC with secondary drive controller
> card.
>
> Altos 580 was my favorite. Half height floppy and St 225 20 Meg HD with a Z80
> and ran 4 terminals under MPM. They would also run CPM. These also came with
> FH 10 & 15 Meg HDs
>
> Altos 586 came with a 40 meg FHHD and the new 8086 processor and was a 6 user
> machine. These often ran Xenix and were password protected.
>
> While I never had one I think the 686 series machines had the 68000 processor
> and ran Xenix.
>
> These were all squashed Hexagonal shaped machines. I think this line went up
> to 9XX series numbers with greater amounts of users.
>
> 3rd Generation
>
> Then there were the Brown floor towers, Altos II & III. These were multiple
> card towers for large amounts of users. These had 80286 and 80386 processors.
> I believe there were machines that continued the 680xx processor line too. I
> only had a couple of these.
>
> The Altos II terminal is a rebadged Wyse 100 and the Altos III was a Wyse 50.
> I think the Altos IV was a Wyse 60 but I am not sure at the moment.
>
> Paxton
>
Received on Mon Mar 27 2000 - 19:23:57 BST