BW%HARVARDA.bitnet@WISCVM.ARPA (Bruce Waldman) (08/11/86)
I have just seen an ad for a Bondwell model 12 for $399. Anyone have any experience with this portable? Does it intrinsically emulate any common CP/M machine? Also a model 14 with double-sided drives and 128K for $100 more. Seem like bargains unless ..... ????
msmiley@NOSC.ARPA (08/11/86)
Yes, I owned a model 12 for a month or so before I picked up my Kaypro. I must say it was an excellant machine. The thing is essentially a Kaypro 4-84, with a 4 meg clock, two drives, and a 9" amber monitor. In addition you get function keys, an external monitor output, and (in my case) WordStar, DataStar, CalcStar, and a couple other Star's with complete documentation, i.e. copies of Micro Pro's complete manuals. The cabinet design is far superior to the Kaypro's. It is made of a thick plastic, with all the controls (power, contrast, reset) on the front next to the monitor. The cord stores in a compartment on the back, which, when closed, protects all the plugs, (monitor output, 2 RS-232, 1 serial, power input). The only reason I didn't keep it was that I needed double sided drives, which your $399 model probably doesn't have. (although they *are* manufactured with DSDD drives, for what would have cost me $400 more). It also comes with a program that allows it to read and write to Kaypro II, Osbourne, and some other strange make disks, although it cannot format Kaypro, etc. I would avoid the model 14, which uses CP/M 3.0 like the Commodore 128. Not that there's anything wrong with 3.0, it's just that there evidently isn't a whole lot of machines that use it. BTW, Kaypro is selling model 1's again for $595! You may want to look into one of those. You can buy them directly from the factory at that price.
Larry_Shilkoff.ElSegundo@xerox.ARPA (08/11/86)
As I understand it, the Bondwell CP/M computers are able to read/write/run Kaypro and Osborne compatible disks. There may be other formats compatible. Larry