erh%virginia.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa (03/07/84)
[] I had exactly same experience with Digital Research and Octagon. After waiting for several weeks for Octagon's literature, I finally managed to talk to a person in their tech department. (My questions were: is the 8" DD disk format IBM (i.e. CompuPro) compatible? -- Yes. Will the CPU's work with 4Mhz static memory mapped board? -- Maybe.) Mike Lucas from Priority 1 said they had Octagon's board running in a CompuPro system and it did fine. Priority had sold several to large companies in LA area and had no complaints. I then ordered one from Priority 1 (in mid February). It is supposed to be shipped around March 10. Presumably, I am taking a risk. But I was surprised and very disappointed by CompuPro's decision to obsolete their Z-80 CPU by introducing a dual CPU board running 8080 only. I considered getting their new Z80 slave CPU but was told that delivery will not start until summer (also, the price is about $1000). For those haven't heard about Octagon's 8/16 CPU board, here are a few specs (as advertised): -- dual CPU's (8088 at 8MHz and NSC-800 at 4MHz. NSC chip is upward compatible with Z80 at the machine language level.) -- FDC on board, up to 4 5" or 8" drives in any combination. -- two software controlled serial ports on board <= 19000 bps -- monitor in PROM, fixed freq timer interrupt, etc. The current Priority 1 price is $795. For another $695 they will sell you 128K of CompuPro's fast RAM, and that is ALL you need to run Octagon's system (CP/M-86 will run with 64K). If it works as advertised, it is a steal. I will likely have more to say when I get the board. ----- Mail saved at Wed Mar 7 06:19:12 1984 To: info-cpm@BRL.ARPA Subject: Re: Octagon 8/16 CPU for S-100 [] I had exactly same experience with Digital Research and Octagon. After waiting for several weeks for Octagon's literature, I finally managed to talk to a person in their tech department. (My questions were: is the 8" DD disk format IBM (i.e. CompuPro) compatible? -- Yes. Will the CPU's work with 4Mhz static memory mapped board? -- Maybe.) Mike Lucas from Priority 1 said they had Octagon's board running in a CompuPro system and it did fine. Priority had sold several to large companies in LA area and had no complaints. I then ordered one from Priority 1 (in mid February). It is supposed to be shipped around March 10. Presumably, I am taking a risk. But I was surprised and very disappointed by CompuPro's decision to obsolete their Z-80 CPU by introducing a dual CPU board running 8080 only. I considered getting their new Z80 slave CPU but was told that delivery will not start until summer (also, the price is about $1000). For those haven't heard about Octagon's 8/16 CPU board, here are a few specs (as advertised): -- dual CPU's (8088 at 8MHz and NSC-800 at 4MHz. NSC chip is upward compatible with Z80 at the machine language level.) -- FDC on board, up to 4 5" or 8" drives in any combination. -- two software controlled serial ports on board <= 19000 bps -- monitor in PROM, fixed freq timer interrupt, etc. The current Priority 1 price is $795. For another $695 they will sell you 128K of CompuPro's fast RAM, and that is ALL you need to run Octagon's system (CP/M-86 will run with 64K). If it works as advertised, it is a steal. I will likely have more to say when I get the board.