RFM@psuvm.psu.edu (12/07/90)
I'm not sure if I'm glad I shot my mouth off about the 2000s and 1200s or not, but I'm glad I've picked up some useful trivia about both of these now-defunct systems. I was shocked to learn that the 1200s were such dogs; at one time I was recommending that we stock a data lab with a couple dozen of 'em. As best I recall, there never was any hint in the computer mags about problems with the 1200s. I do recall quite well that folks in those same computer mags used to speak quite well about the speed and graphics of the 2000s, but at the same time were awed/appalled about the machine sitting out here all along on the 80186 branch of the Intel tree. Seems to me I read/heard somewhere in the last couple of years that the 186 chip was being used in some kind of auxillary capacity in some kind of application hardware -- wish I could remember when/where/what. But what the heck; there's nothing wrong with using old/obsolete systems. My son runs a 4p at school. I know people who will use their TRS00 Mod 1s till the day they die (the person or the machine; whichever comes first!) Today, we packed up a Model III/upgraded to IV to ship to University Salvage. It had developed video problems & we didn't want to spend $150 to fix. Got a lot of milage out of that machine back in the early '80s. Life goes on. To close, might I suggest that 1200s and 2000s would make good boat anchors? Bob Munzenrider, PSU-Harrisburg DoD # 197 SoB # 003
fzsitvay@techbook.com (Frank Zsitvay) (12/12/90)
In article <90340.234408RFM@psuvm.psu.edu> RFM@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >I do recall quite well that folks in those same computer mags used to >speak quite well about the speed and graphics of the 2000s, but at the >same time were awed/appalled about the machine sitting out here all >along on the 80186 branch of the Intel tree. Seems to me I read/heard >somewhere in the last couple of years that the 186 chip was being used in >some kind of auxillary capacity in some kind of application hardware -- >wish I could remember when/where/what. there is nothing wrong with the 186 chip. it's just an 8086 that has many of the functions of intel's support chips built in. because of this, it is also used in intelligent peripheral like caching hard drive controllers. there was a company that marketed a card you could stick into a clone that had two of these on it, along with ports for two keyboards and two monochrome monitors. add a special device driver (which the company supplied on disk) and you suddenly have 3 clones in one case, sharing ports and mass storage. of course, you needed to add two more keyboards and two more monitors to make your clone into a 'three headed moster.' there were also clones manufactured that used the 80186 as the cpu, and i mean real xt clones. NEC also sold the v40 which is to the 186 as the v20 is to the 8086. it wasn't very popular as a PC cpu because it was difficult to interface an 8087 to it. you needed a special intel chip to do this, and the 80186 and this special chip cost more than the assortment of chips you would need for a 'conventional' clone. by the time intel lowered the price of the 186, ATs became the machine of choice, and since there is little interest in developing new xt clones, it's not used much as a cpu anymore. but as a peripheral controller it's great. -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - but don't quote me on that.... American Oil Company motto - Bend over, We'll pump!!!