More micom pictures...

From: Lawrence Walker <lgwalker_at_mts.net>
Date: Wed Nov 13 04:51:01 2002

Ok. I think you have everything for a functioning box. Hard to see the
exact chips but it looks right.

For those interested, it had more functions than any other machines
from that timeframe or much later I've seen.

The 5 rows x 4 columns on the function pad buttons were :

File Recall Open Update

Repeat ^ (cursor) Nextpage Print

< (cursor) Home(cursor) >(cursor) Stop/Cont

Scrol (down cursor) Delete Insert

Command___(double Key) Cancel Mode

 Does this seem familiar ?

 And this was in production before the Apple 1 was even out of the garage.

 Does anyone know of any computer that did subscript and superscript
printing in 1975 as Micom did with their hookup with Qume. I don't think even
QMS who invented Postscript did that.
  
Founded in March 1975 and by March 76 had sold 180 Micom 2000s worth
$2 million just as Wozniak and Jobs finished work on the Apple circuit board.

 This was from Poullsons Timeline and other sources quoting
     
Knights of the New Technology - The Inside Story of Canada's
          Computer Elite, by David Thomas, 1983.
 
1972

Intel introduces its 200-KHz 8008 chip, the first 8-bit microprocessor.
Atari is founded and ships Pong, the first commercial video game.

Canada's Automatic Electronic Systems introduces the world's first
programmable word processor.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen form the Traf-O-Data company.
5.25 inch diskettes first appear.

March 75

     Stephen Dorsey, founder of Automatic Electronic Systems, sells his 25%
of the company for $135,000.
 
    Stephen Dorsey and Louis Miller found Micom Data Systems, in Canada.

It's ludicrous that this machine hasn't been given it's due by the computer
community. It came out the same year as the Altair (with 256 bytes of
memory) and Imsai, and was likely more advanced than either of them. Even
the later Apple 2 only had a maximum of 48k and as evidenced, the Micom
had 64K. Most like the TRS80 and Pet only had 4k. It also had 6 slots for
add-ons. The later Apple II had 8, over Jobs objections, he only wanted 2.
Dorsey had been producing business machines since 72. Possibly because
it was marketed as a Word Processor while it was clearly an advanced
computer for it's time, and because it was aimed at the word processing
business community before the spread sheets, which it clearly could have
handled as evidenced by it's later math programs . It was also capable of
Sync and A-sync communication.

 The otherwise brilliant Stephen Dorsey missed on the potential of general
computing, as well as games. Who can blame him in retrospect. He went
where the money was. With more vision, he could have been a Gates or
Jobs, and our present computer history would have been different. ( I know, a
little like saying if the dog hadn't turned when the train ran over his tail, he
wouldn't have lost his head over a piece of tail)

 But had he hooked up with the Lanpar ( ? 2 guys from Northern Telecom)
people there would have been no Lotus as any perusal of the suit shows that
Lotus won the patent court case only on technicalities, and as everyone
admits Supercalc was the making of Apple. True, it was expensive, but
much less than the Minis. A truly remarkable machine and I'm sure much
more information will emerge with more historical research. After Dorsey
sold his final shares to Philips in 83 he went on to found a communication
company, Voice and Data Systems "the leader in real-time packetized
technology( Terra FaxPad)". Last I traced him he was on the northern left
coast. Don't know if he is still alive.

There's more to collecting computers than just accepting the common
verities.

Lawrence

> Due to popular demand, I've added close ups of the
> keyboard and each of the circuit boards. The board
> pics are linked from the main picture page. They
> came out a little fuzzy (can't read the chip numbers).
> I'll try again tomorrow.
>
> http://osi.webhop.net
>
> Follow the links. I think I'll start dragging out
> my OSIs and taking pictures of them next.
>
> Bill
>


lgwalker_at_mts.net
bigwalk_ca_at_yahoo.com
Received on Wed Nov 13 2002 - 04:51:01 GMT

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