"Televideo Systems"

From: Pat Finnegan <pat_at_purdueriots.com>
Date: Sat May 4 01:06:59 2002

On Fri, 3 May 2002, Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote:

> > Just pinging out there... I was wondering if anyone had a Televideo TS 806
> > or TS 816 they would be willing to give to a 'good home'. I have a bit of
> > an attachment/longing for one, it was that computer at my Dad's office
> > (he's an Optometrist) that I never got to play with until it broke and
> > (since I was rather young at the time) I took it apart. The pieces have
> > since been tossed by my parents in the interest of 'cleaning up'.
>
> Wasn't the 816 the 8086/8088 version? The TS-803 had a Z-80.

Aparently so, but the TS-806 was a Z80 version also, with support for up
to 6 terminals on RS-422 (if the TS-806 is the system I took apart). I
remember it worked like a boot-server to TS-800's (or was it TVI-800's?)
as diskless workstations that connected back to the TS-806. It was fairly
cool, I always liked the shape of the things and the keyboards for some
reason... perhaps becuse it was the first 'multiuser' system I got to
see. I'm still amazed at how one could run 6 user sessions off a
processor that lacked 'protection' between tasks. I guess code was just
better written back then (no major MicroSoft apps to screw the system
up :).

After realizing that the 816 was an 8088 box, I'm a bit less interested in
it...

> We had 25 of the TS-803 at RETS, and I've been haggling
> for the only one I know is left from the guy who has it,
> so far, to no avail. I have manuals and lots of software
> for it, including TELE-WRITE and TELE-DRAW. We had a
> MouseSystems optical mouse on ours that worked with TELE-DRAW.

Cool. I'm pretty sure the TS-806 and TS/TVI-800's were text-only, but if
the text-mode software still is compatible, that'd be awesome.

-- Pat
Received on Sat May 04 2002 - 01:06:59 BST