jnelson@trwrba.UUCP (John T. Nelson) (01/06/85)
Both the Micromint Term-mite and the Digital Research terminal boards look to be reasonably good. The Term-mite is about $250 while the ZRT-80 is $129.... a significant cost difference. Can anyone sway me towards either one of these boards? Any personal experiences that would be helpful in selecting a REAL inexpensive terminal board? seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!jnelson - John
cem@intelca.UUCP (Chuck McManis) (01/10/85)
Having built several ZRT-80 boards (now $99) to upgrade some really dumb
terminals in school I offer the following comments :
The ZRT is based on the Z-80 as the controlling processor. This allows easy
custimization of the software/firmware (supplied on 8" disk) on a CP/M system.
The TERMITE uses a national chip that is not well supported in terms of tools
available for HOME computers. The ZRT-80 can have several more pages of video
ram added, with the advantage of giving either larger displays or scroll back
capability. The TERMITE does have Double high and Wide characters which
allows true VT100 emulation, the ZRT80 does not. The ZRT80 emulates the
Heath mode only (Not the ANSI mode) of a H19 terminal but could be rewritten
to add the ANSI 3.64 features. The TERMite board is physically smaller but
not by much. Serial communication capabilities are the same.
Bottom line : For what you would pay for the TERMmite you can have a complete
Terminal based on the ZRT80.
--Chuck
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