On Mon, 14 May 2001, George Leo Rachor Jr. wrote:
> I've been told that a local computer scrap warehouse has run across
> something called a Diablo 3200 apparantly built into a custom Desk.
> I'm afraid the guts will be removed as trash so the unit is probably
> history but it got me to wondering what this machine was all about.
> I had worked for Diablo during the Daisy wheel days and had heard
> references to other equipment made by Diablo prior to being bought by
> Xerox but didn't know specifics.
I just picked one up within the last month. I don't have a picture of it
but I can get one today.
It's an 8080-based machine that was marketed as an office data processing
system. I company I pulled it out of used it to do payroll and stuff up
until a few years ago. The machine was sold in the late 1970s. I think
it first went on the market in 1977.
The computer part is stuffed underneath the desk on the right-hand side.
The disk drives (mine has four 8" floppies) are on the left. The terminal
is built into the desktop. It also came with a separate daisy-wheel
printer.
It reminds me very much of the IBM 3741 Display Station that I picked up
about a month prior to this. In fact, I'm speculating that the 3200 was
Diablo's attempt to better the 3741 and compete against IBM in the small-
to medium-sized business realm. The 3741 has a small terminal built into
the desktop (very small, only like 4" across) and two 8" floppies mounted
vertically on the surface of the desk. It also came with a separate dot
matrix printer. The 3741 was sold as a data entry terminal, but it
actually had a BASIC interpreter and most likely other languages could be
gotten for it (mine came with BASIC).
> Anyone have an idea what OS might have used. Was it CP/M or something
> less universal?
The Diablo 3200 ran CP/M.
It would be a shame to let this beast go to its death. I've never seen a
Diablo 3200 before or after the one I got, in fact I'd never even heard of
it, and I'm a bit surprised to see mention of another. My guess is that
they are extremely rare. You should do what you can to rescue it,
although it is a bit sizeable and would take up a little space in your
garage or what not.
Diablo was a San Francisco Bay Area company that was more than likely
named after Mount Diablo, a rather large mountain east of the hills
separating the Oakland east bay area from the inland east bay area
(locally known as the Tri-Valley area :) Up until I found the 3200, I
didn't know they made anything other than disk drives and printers.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Mon May 14 2001 - 15:48:37 BST