Intellec MDS questions

From: William Layer <william.layer_at_comcast.net>
Date: Sun Jan 30 12:35:13 2005

Hey all,

Thanks for all the background and help on the Altair project. I'll be taking some pics of the pile for a 'before and after' set. Hopefully there will be an after worth mentioning ;-)

Now on to Intel / Intellec MDS systems. I've got one that is alternately described as an MDS225 or and MDS800. IIRC, the dual-disk unit is marked MDS800, (blue in color) and the main chassis is marked MDS225 (white in color, has a monitor, kb, and a series of pushbuttons with LED indicators).

Information on these units is pretty sparse on the web; multiple google searches have yielded little more than years of manufacture, and some price info.

One question that should amuse the more veteran members of classiccmp is this: What exactly is meant by "Microcomputer Development System"? It's like that old joke about "Repairing Robots".. Are they referring to the process of repairing a robot, or to robots that perform repairs?

Is the MDS a system for developing microcomputers, or is it a microcomputer that is used for other forms of hardware / software development, or a little of both? I'm getting the feeling that the latter might be the case.

Secondly, what kind of operating system, applications, etc can one of the MDS units run? I'm told that it is an ISIS based system, but I really don't know much about ISIS. I assume it's a disk operating system, but beyond that I'm clueless. I'd like to think that there is some general-purpose OS I could run on it, play some wumpus, trek or life, amortize my mortgage, or maybe fire up a terminal emulator and get into the BBS scene.

I'm clearly no expert in this old stuff, but I'm at least wise enough to realize what I *don't* know. Can someone fill in a few of the gaps?

My MDS has an 8080A CPU card in it, some kind of memory card, and a disk controller. Also, a card that connects to a large ICE pod "Intel ICE-51", if that helps.

TIA, Bill
Received on Sun Jan 30 2005 - 12:35:13 GMT