alford@ecsvax.UUCP (Ross Alford) (03/01/86)
I'm looking at laptops, and am curious about the NEC 8401. I'd be interested in hearing anything about this machine. I also have several specific questions: 1) Is there an xmodem protocol file transfer program available for it? 2) Will CP/M save/load programs from cassette? Is the cassette device a standard recorder, or is it necessary to buy one from NEC? 3) Is all of the ROM software accessible without any chip swapping (Portable WordStar, Calc, Filer, Telcom.) 4) If there IS an xmodem program available, how in the world do you bootstrap it in for the first time, given that there's no built-in programming language? Is there a user's group that distributes things on cassette? As a dedicated CP/M user, this machine has a lot of appeal, but there are no dealers in the state of NC (according to NEC) so information is hard to come by. Thank you, Ross Alford ...{decvax, akgua, ihnp4}!mcnc!ecsvax!alford