strom%brl-bmd@sri-unix.UUCP (11/07/83)
From: Charlie Strom (NYU) <strom@brl-bmd> I havehad an Adam for several days and am quite please with it thus far. The keyboard is real, the word processor (in rom) is adeequate (not Wordstar, but then look at the price), and the printer actually prints! It is a daisywheel (96 char diablo plastic I think and Hytype-I ribbons?) and is SLOW and NOISY, supposedly will super and subscript utilizing half linefeeds (have not tried yet). Lots of future expansion planned, like RS232, centronics port, CP/M (IOS?) compatibility, modem, 64K extra memory, etc. I hope it all comes to fruition. Right now there is NO technical info and no way to get into the operating system (assuming there is one or at least a rom monitor). Have I covered all questions?
Thomka.es@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/08/83)
By what I have heard about the Adam in some various computer rags, I thought that the BASIC computer language was in ROM, and built into the Adam. Not that the word processor runs on BASIC, (very unlikely!) but that both packages were resident in ROM and available. Can you get the BASIC working? If so would you try this simple program and tell me the results? 10 N=0: INPUT "How many loops to do? "; L 20 FOR C = 1 TO L: N=N+1: N= TAN( ATN( EXP( LOG( SQR( N*N))))): NEXT C 30 PRINT "The end value is "; N On two different times, input values 1000 and 2500 and let me know what the resulting numbers were and the time it took to compute them. The reason I want the information is that I'm compiling a list of various computers' (Apple, IBM, Radio Shack, etc.) answers and their times. Thanks, Chuck
strom%brl-bmd@sri-unix.UUCP (11/09/83)
From: Charlie Strom (NYU) <strom@brl-bmd> The BASIC supplied with the Coleco is on tape, not in rom. It is a Z80 basic one would assume since that is the CPU ship used, but it claims Apple basic compatibility on the source level. There is no peek or poke or any other way I can figure out to get a look at ram (that's compatible??) I will indeed run the benchmark for you and report back. P.S. I am cc'ing the Adam information to INFO-CPM since there will definitely be a CP/M capability in the Adam in the near future. If I am incorrect that the list is interested in this machine, please advise and I will stop clogging the net with unwanted messages.