C08920SW@wuvmd.bitnet (Steve Westlund) (07/19/90)
>From: att!cbnewsm!wabit@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (david.w.mundhenk) >Subject: Old XEROX system needs help... >Message-ID: <1990Jul9.150653.14988@cbnewsm.att.com> > >A friend is trying to make use of an old CP/M XEROX >word processing system. I can't seem to find the model >number at the moment, but it was an alphanumeric; the >system doesn't seem to have a model name. It has 2 >8" floppy drives. The owner has a good supply of disks, >and has a disk that seems to be a boot disk, but >nothing happens when it tries to boot off this. BTW, >when powered on, the system comes up with 3 choices: >typewriter, wordprocessor, or host terminal (or similar >descriptions). Maybe this will help identify the system. > >To get to my question, does anyone know what this beast >is, and can software be acquired to make it useful? >It seems to be working OK other than the fact that it >won't boot off this floppy - the light comes on on the >floppy drive... > Your system may be a XEROX 820-II or 16/8 microcomputer. The 820-II has a Z80 processor and runs CP/M80 version 2.2. A lot of good software is available for the 820-II. Much of it is in the public domain and is available in the SIMTEL20 CP/M Archives. Commercial software is also available through mail order. Central Computer Products of Fillmore, California, is an excellent source. The XEROX 16/8 is really an 820-II with an Intel 8086 coprocessor. This micro is capable of running CP/M86 and MS-DOS in addition to CP/M80. There isn't much available software for CP/M86 and only generic MS-DOS applications will run on the 16/8, provided the machine has enough RAM. The 16/8 can do multi- processing, allowing two programs to execute simultaneously - one on the Z80 running CP/M80, the other on the 8086 running CP/M86. I have a 16/8 micro and wanted to take advantage of this feature. But, because there isn't much CP/M86 software available, I have replaced my 8086 with a V30 chip which is able to run a CP/M80 emulator under CP/M86. Now I can run two CP/M80 programs at once, and have more available RAM for some CP/M80 applications, like Supercalc, that can use it. The way to boot the system is to place a bootable disk in drive A, press "L" and the enter key. (Insert the disk with the label to the right). Try this with all your disks, until one works. Some of those disks may be bootable as well. I hope this information is of some help.