The Big Board was a "clone" of the Xerox 820 system! In fact it could be set
up to run
exactly like it and use all the software for the system. There were even
boards designed
later to allow use with Shugart Hard drives. There was at the time of its'
high popularity
a large following of users, and also a users group and news letter, and
Bulletin Board
setup to call into and download programs and leave questions and get
answers. Quite
popular actually. The boards were used in a LOT of Amateur Radio related
projects
as well! ASCII to anything conversions, there is even a "Modem" program
specifically for
the Big Board, with speeds up to 19200 Baud. How do I know, I have two and
they
still run, are in use in Radio Apps. The Xerox 820 was another board that
was highly
used for various purposes, including terminal node controllers (TNCs) for
vhf and uhf
two-way radio systems. These programs also ran on the Big Board system
requiring only
a removal of the Eproms and installing the new ones made it a "dedicated"
controller.
It is a 4 Mhz Z-80 with 2 SIO, 1 PIO and a driver onboard to run most of the
"VDTs"
of the era! Software was abundant and easy to install, making it a Plug and
Play type
microcontroller system with floppy devices, 5.25 and 8 inch for storage. I
ran CP/M
and a few other systems.
Jim
WB2FCN
http://eshop1.chem.buffalo.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: "Curt vendel" <curt_at_atarimuseum.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 10:59 PM
Subject: Whats the big deal with the Bigboard II ???
> Hi,
>
> Can someone fill me in on all the interest? I just recently won an
> auction on Ebay, primarily I wanted just the cabinet with its 8" disk
drives
> and power supply so I could install an 8" controller inside of it that
> allows Atari 8bits using the SIO bus to use 8" disk drives.
>
> Well as a bonus the auction came with the Big Board II inside of the
> cabinet, I couldn't tell from the photo and figured yeah it was some kind
of
> single board computer, but since winning the auction I've received 5
emails
> inquiring and wanting to buy it from me, so tell me what the story is
behind
> this board please.
>
>
>
> Curt
>
>
>
>
Received on Mon Oct 06 2003 - 07:58:40 BST