The 100+ cost $5475 new with the specs you list. The base 100B was a
stripped-down 100+. The HD was optional. Base 100B price was $2750--about
the same as the original 100. My wording was misleading--sorry.
You are correct that all 100s could read IBM disks, but only with the
operating system kit that was introduced as an option with the 100+.
Standard 100s could not read IBM PC format disks. I should have been more
clear here, too, but was too lazy to check my source material (DEC presskits
and catalog plus BYTE articles).
--Mike
Michael Nadeau
Editor/Publisher
Classic Tech, the Vintage Computing Resource
www.classictechpub.com
603-893-2379
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Pechter" <pechter_at_bg-tc-ppp747.monmouth.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 9:02 AM
Subject: Re: DEC Rainbows ... prior info is wrong
> [Charset iso-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]
> >
> >
> > The 100A could read only disks that used its own proprietary format. The
> > 100+ could read, but not write to, PC-format disks. The 100B was a
> > lower-priced version of the 100+. I'm sure there are other differences,
but
> > these are the key ones.
> >
> > --Mike
> >
> > Michael Nadeau
> > Editor/Publisher
> > Classic Tech, the Vintage Computing Resource
> > www.classictechpub.com
> > 603-893-2379
>
> Nope... the 100+ and 100B were (IIRC) the same thing. The B rev could
> handle more memory than the 100 (the B was a motherboard rev IIRC).
>
> The B went to 896k of memory... the 100 was less. The B or + also
> had a larger power supply to handle the hard disk and more memory.
>
> I don't remember any cost/price reduction at that time but I was mostly
> a PDP11/VAX guy back then.
>
> All Rainbows (with the correct software) could read IBM MS-DOS 40trk
> 160/320/180/360 floppies.
>
> No standard Rainbows could handle the 1.2mb AT disks which came later.
>
> Bill
Received on Fri Feb 15 2002 - 08:45:16 GMT