At 03:49 PM 9/4/04 -0400, you wrote:
>On Sat, 4 Sep 2004, Dave Mabry wrote:
>
>> Somehow I missed the original message in this thread, but maybe I can
clear up
>> a bit of Andy's confusion.
>>
>> The Intellec MDS 800 is the development system that Intel sold to create
>> products on their 8080 and later processors. It was itself based on what
>> later became known as the "Multibus" architecture. It ran a 2MHz 8080
cpu and
>> was standard with 16K bytes of RAM. You could add more, up to 64K that the
>> main cpu (the 8080) could address.
>>
>> Intel sold a disk-drive subsystem that consisted of two Shugart 801 8"
floppy
>> drives. They could work as single density or double density depending on
>> whether you had the 201 or 202 controller board set. Yes, it was a set
of TWO
>> multibus board to control those two floppy drives.
>>
>> Gary Kildall wrote the CP/M operating system for that computer and Intel
also
>> sold their own called ISIS-II (there might have been an ISIS without the
II,
>> but I never knew of it).
>>
>> The system that Steve mentions here with an integrated CRT and keyboard
has to
>> be the follow-on product from Intel called the MDS Series II, a
different, but
>> compatible, system from the MDS-800. The 800 needed an external terminal.
>
>Thanks for filling that in. I don't know a lot about this unit. It came
>from the local university surplus outlet, and was accompanied by reams of
>documentation, diskettes and EPROM burner modules. It has the dual drive
>subsystem, but I have not gone into it to see what the controllers are.
Here are some pictures of a couple of my 800s
<
http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds800_3/> and
<
http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds800_4/>. Here
<
http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds.htm> is a webpage that I started (but
never finished) that describes some of the 2xx models. Here is a MOL
finished webpage about one of my other MDS-800s,
<
http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds-800/mds-800.htm>. It includes pictures
and descriptions of most of the various MDS-800 cards.
Here, <
http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/multibus/multibus.html> is a webpage
that I swtarted about Multibus cards. It includes both Intel and non_intel
cards. I'm WAY behind with the updates for it.
Joe
>
>It keeps my HP64000 company. Picked one of them up at the same time,
>along with probably every bit of documentation, pods and software ever
>made for it. Hard to find anyone who's even heard of them (besides you,
I have two of them sitting in storage. But I'm not really interested in
them and I shipped most of the docs and SW and small parts to Frank McConnell.
Joe
>Dave <g>).
>
>
>
>
Received on Tue Sep 07 2004 - 13:16:05 BST