W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Keith Petersen) (04/01/88)
Here is file GRUDGE.DOC, recently uploaded to my RCP/M. I am not the
author.
--Keith Petersen
Arpa: W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA
Uucp: {decwrl,harvard,lll-crg,ucbvax,uunet,uw-beaver}!simtel20.arpa!w8sdz
GEnie: W8SDZ
RCP/M Royal Oak: 313-759-6569 - 300, 1200, 2400 (V.22bis) or 9600 (USR HST)
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Dateline April 1, 1988
Anaheim, CA
Vengance Computing announces imminent production of it's totally
non-PC compatible computer, code-named "The Grudge".
Co-Founder Tim Jones: "Look, We've seen enough of all this PC
garbage, and certainly had to deal with enough of PC dos to last us a
lifetime."
Co-Founder Dave Vanhorn: "I've been running Z-system for a long
time now, and I'm tired of the supremacist baloney from the PC crowd."
"When IBM entered the market, they told us that we were doing it
all wrong and that they had all the answers. Well, they were wrong.
Now they want you to toss all the junk they sold you before and go with
OS/2... (Remember the PC Jr?)"
Vengance Computing has decided to come to market with a Z-system
engine which is based on a new chip which combines the familiar Z-80
family of chips into a single package. The CPU, CTC, DART and PIO are
all nested into a single 100 pin flatpack chip. The chip supports 6 Mhz
clock rates.
The operating philosophy of Vengance Computing:
"In our opinion, the PC family tree is a drug-induced mutation
of the Z-80 evolutionary path, and it's time we all woke up and started
using real computers again instead of these brain-damaged appliance-
level toys which IBM and Intel have palmed off on us."
The "Grudge", which is still in the pre-production stage, has a
conventional floppy controller, paralell printer port with bidirectional
capability, two full-feature serial ports, and a SCSI interface for hard
disk interface and plug-in networking which supports four Mbyte/sec data
rates. It also includes a real-time clock, and instead of the usual dy-
namic ram, has a full 64K of static, battery backed ram.
The "Grudge" system will come with bundled software, ZRDOS, and
ZCPR3.3. Licencing arraingements on additional packages are still being
worked on.
It will NOT run flight simulator or Lotus 1-2-3!
The system BIOS code will not be copy protected. It will instead
be released to the public domain in order to encourage improvements and
new ideas. "We absolutely despise the philosophy of the closed archi-
tecture and the idea that a real computer user dosen't need BIOS code.
Rather than try to keep it a secret, we are giving it away.... Soon!"
The systems will come to market in the upper $500 range and will
also have an optional 256K-8Mby ramdisk board which will plug in through
the expansion bus connector. "We thought that the ramdisk was needed,
but we remain skeptical of how many people will pay the estimated $2100
for the ram chips to fully populate this option." (Curent pricing on
1M X 1 dynamic rams is quoted at $32 each, so $32*8*8=$2048.)
The "Grudge" board also includes intelligent caching for disks,
with extra memory allocated fot this task so as not to use TPA space.
The systems are physically similar to the SB-180 and Ampro
Little Board computers, and are intended to mount in the same cabinets.
"We're also leaving room for other folk's add-on cards, and pro-
viding a pair of decoded I/O port banks for them to use."
Future plans for the product line include a Z-280 main processor
which will take over the "Grudge" and use it as an intelligent I/O pro-
cessor. This Z-280 board (Code named "AVENGER") will run on a 16 bit
bus, and will include a direct controller for ST-506 type drives which
supports 10Mby/Sec transfer rates. Installation will be plug-in with an
eprom change on the "Grudge" board.
Another future add-on is a "Grudge"-to-PC bus interface allowing
the use of suitably cheap PC peripheral cards. "They aren't real won-
derful either, but they are cheap and plentyful!"
Grudge systems will be available 3rd quarter 88.
Vengance Computing can be contacted at:
Vengance Computing
2316 S Harbor Blvd
Anaheim Ca 92802
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