vic@sunybcs.UUCP (Vic Bahl) (04/10/85)
I am interested in the new AT&T Pc 7300 as well as the relatively new 6300.
I would appreciate getting mail from those of you out there that have infor-
mation on these two micros. I would be particularly interested in the
following things (but not exclusively so) :
1. Compatibility with IBM PC as well as availibility of
software.
2. Cost of basic system (6300) 2 drives, 128 or 256 ram
monitor,keyboard.
3. Cost of the basic 7300 system. Since I really have no
idea what this system is like please let me know what
the cost you have seen includes as well as what else is
available and for how much.
4. The 7300 is advertised as a UNIX machine. I am not sure
what that means (ie. does it mean that UNIX is available
as an operating system if you have at least a 10 mb disk
or what.
5. Reliability and general performance.
I have not located any reviews of either of these micros so if you know of
any I would appreciate it.
I have not seen the 6300 advertised thru mail order in Byte at least. If anyone
has let me know.
Thank you
Vic Bahl
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Vic Bahl @ SUNY Buffalo Computer Science (716-688-2879)
UUCP: ..![bbncca,decvax,dual,rocksanne,watmath]!sunybcs!vic
CSNET: vic@Buffalo.CSNET ARPA: vic%buffalo@CSNET-RELAYbaxter@uab_cs.UUCP (04/12/85)
As the proud owner of an AT&T PC 6300, I can offer the following information
on it:
1) It is very compatible with the IBM PC (assuming IBM color graphics
equipped IBM PC), supporting all text/graphics modes supported by
IBM's standard color graphics adapter. It has the advantage of
supporting the color support with a color or monochrome monitor.
Note: only AT&T monitors are supported! In addition an additional
graphics mode supporting b/w 640 x 400 resolution is available.
2) One difference is that GWBASIC (non-rom version) is used rather than
BASICA (IBM proprietary rom). The supported commands/keywords are
identical in both BASIC's.
3) The AT&T machine is noticeably faster for computationally intensive
tasks (approx. 2 to 1). It has 5 available expansion slots which are
IBM PC equivalent plus 2 which allow 16 bit data transfers. Thesys
Memory Products makes a memory expansion board for the PC 6300 which
supports the 16 bit slot (384K plus includes Grafix Partner from
Brightbill-Roberts & Co. and Thesys's own disk cacheing software,
both are very good). Combination is $595.
4) I have installed Cermetek's PC 1200 modem board and a hard disk
controller for an external 20 Mbyte disk from Computer Integration
Associates (CIA) in New Jersey. Both are very functional. The
hard disk subsystem is designed for either an IBM PC or compatible
and can support Xenix (based on vendor claims, but not tested).
5) The keyboard connection is NOT IBM PC compatible so Keytronic's keyboards
may not be used. I have used an HP 2622 terminal emulator from
Walker, Richer & Quinn which appears to operate the keyboard at a very
low level with complete success.
6) I have not seen ANY software package which supports the AT&T PC 6300's
640 x 400 graphics mode. You would have to do your own programming.
7) Turbo Pascal works very nicely.