At 0:07 -0500 6/25/04, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>------------------------------
>
>On Thu, Jun 24, 2004 at 03:08:27AM +0800, Wai-Sun Chia wrote:
>> I know what's a Rainbow, but what's a Robin?
>> It's a bit of a downer that the PDPs don't have cool code names like the
>> VAXens. :-)
>
>The Rainbow was DEC's 8-bit competitor to the IBM PC. It runs DOS, but
>is not 100% compatible - more available DOS memory than the real thing,
>which screws with some programs that depend on a precise memory map. It
>also has RX50 drives. At least it can format blank media.
True more or less, but sells the Rainbow a bit short. It has both
Z-80 and 8088 (arguably 16-bit?) processors, runs CP/M-80 and CP/M-86
as well as the DOS you described (and VENIX? Not sure that that is
still resurrectable).
The "Rainbow" was (according to at least some of their literature)
intended to be a bridge between the 8-bit and the 16-bit software
worlds.
--
- Mark
210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967
Received on Sat Jun 26 2004 - 12:59:53 BST