PEARSON@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (07/18/84)
From: William Pearson <PEARSON@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA> The new Heathkit catalog, which I got today, mentions the "NEW Z-319 Assembled Video Card which plugs into Personal and Portable Computers to provide high resolution, 8-color, 640 x 225 pixel mapped graphics. Emulates H-100 video attributes and uses mapping to functionally emulate the keys of an H-100 keyboard." This sounds very nice, as the Z-100 display is much much better than the IBM-PC graphics display, and has 8-color high resolution. I called Heath to ask if it would work on an IBM-PC (it's designed for Zenith's Z-150 series) and got the answer that 1) it's not out yet (expect in about a month) and 2) yes, it should be compatible with the IBM-PC, but not certain. I suspect unmodified PC-DOS won't drive the card. If Zenith had many smarts, they would make it PC-compatible, since there are many more IBM-PC's than Zenith PC's, but getting the software from them for an IBM might be tricky. Price: $ 499.
vizard@dartvax.UUCP (Todd Krein) (07/24/84)
Well, since the Z-150 and Z-160 are IBM-PC compatable, and the new card
from Zenith is Z-150 compatable, one would assume (which could be a mistake)
that the card is, therefore, IBM-PC compatable. Hey, Zenith puts out
real good stuff (I've got a Z-150 (which comes 320k standard!!) and LOVE
it).
Yours,
Todd Krein
..!decvax!darvax!vizard