chase@harvard.ARPA (Penny Chase) (03/11/85)
Thanks to all who responded to my request for information about the SEEQUA. Five people sent me information. Of these, 1 was positive, 2 were "lukewarm" (the machine is OK, but they'd get a different one if they had it to do over), and 2 were negative. The responses follow (in slightly edited form): THE POSITIVE REPONSE >From: Coins201 <coins201%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> I bought my Chameleon second hand (the previous user decide d to buy a MAC) I upgraded it myself (having never opened a computer my self) and put in 2 new drives (dsdd), an 8087 math processor, and more memory. The mother board will hold a maximum of 256k and has the 8087 socket. More memory can be added by piggy-backing another board on top of the mother board. This machine (the Chameleon) has no external slots for add on boards, but Seequa offers an external chasis with slots and the option of a hard disk. The only other bad thing about this machine is that instead of using the 8255 peripheral chip for the serial ports, they used the 8274 (primarily to facilitate networking, as the chip may support 0-7 serial ports). . . . since the serial chip is different most IBM serial port and communication software won't work. I say most because unless they go through the standard INT 14H the software probably will not work. If the software uses . . . the problem with the serial port incompatibility is alleviated in two ways. The first is that Seequa supplies their own terminal program which has file up/down loading in both ascii and Xmodem. They also supply a serial driver which may be linked to any DOS object file. The good thing about their driver is that it automatically buffers incomming and out going data. The other way to get around the problem is an add-on card (small board) which has the 8255 and acts just like the IBM's so that you may run ANY serial package written for the IBM PC. Seequa is the supplier of this board (although it may have been designed by some one else). I have had no problem running any software other than communication software. The only problem that I have had involved a program which made use of the IBM ROM BOIS. The difference being that the keyboard routine INT 16H for the IBM is located at F000:E987 and the Chameleon's INT 16H is located at FE00:0987. The address is the same but the different segment caused a problem. Now the good parts ... The color palette is dynamic and thus you may set any of the four colors used for 200 by 320 graphics, the three colors and the background. Also the character set generator is located in RAM not ROM like the IBM PC. Thus you may customize your character sets without changing ROMS. (I wrote a program to which does this quite easily for those Seequa users who may read this.) The machine emulates a color graphics card in monochrome green very well and will also act like a monochrome. Another "wonderful" thing about the Chameleon is that it does not have hardware configuration switches. Instead the machine a 64 nibble Nonvolatile Ram (EEROM) which stores the configuration of the machine. Thus to change configurations you only have to run a program, not open the machine. The keyboard for the machine is the Key-tronic keyboard, and is a resonable keyboard. The keys do not "click" like the IBM, but there are 10 electronic "click" volumes to which you may configure the machine to produce each time a key is pressed (one level is set to produce no click). Seequa is very good about helping out users with technical information. Although there is no room for slots, the address lines are available for external device hook ups. One last thing, the machine is very portable. I can pack it up in about 6 minutes and walk out the door with it, (this is fine if you aren't worries about theft). THe machine is said to weigh in at 28lbs. Many reviews of the machine fail to sight the hardware features of the machine (Character RAM, color pallets etc.) If you send me your address I will send you a copy of the reports that I have come across. David Dantowitz ------- THE LUKEWARM RESPONSES >From: jimd@iddic.UUCP I have the portable seequa, the chamaeleon. It is an inexpensive compatable which is very code compatable with the p.c., but lacks any expansion slots. For me, this is a substantial weakness which was aggravated by the fact that the dealer network and advertising mislead me into believing that an expansion box would be forthcoming. As far as I know, it never happened. Seequa now has a desktop p.c. clone, which would get around the problem I encountered above, but I am still not sure I would buy one. The beauty of the genuine IBM P.C. is that it is an open architecture; the system is presented in great detail, both hardware and software wise. The Seequa viewpoint, as explained to me by one of their V.P.'s David Mathes, is that their design is "proprietary". In my case, this has been a real pain, because I am at the whim of their marketing department. Not only can I not purchase what I need from Seequa, but I can't very conveniently build it myself. From my point of view, if I had it to do over again, I would get the real thing, rather than save a few bucks. Jim Delwiche Tektronix, Inc Box 1000 Wilsonville, Or. 97070 ------- >From: amys@sco.UUCP The seequa is the noisiest PC clone I've ever used. Most floppy drives purr, this one squawks. Documentation is better than some other clones I've seen, but far behind IBM's. Compatibility seems reasonable, even with that extra z80 chip they've stuck in there. Make sure that the DMA controller is an Intel one, not an AMD one (it's about 50/50). The rumor I've heard is that AMD started to second source this part for Intel but Intel supplied bad chip masks for it. The practical upshot is that you MUST open the box you plan to buy, find the chip on the motherboard marked 8237, and make sure it's made by Intel, otherwise the system will crash under heavy device access. Overall, acceptable but hardly extraordinary. I liked both the Compaq and the Leading Edge better. --amy ------- THE NEGATIVE RESPONSES >From: Jim Forrest <JFORREST@SIMTEL20.ARPA> I have a friend who is a computer dealer for Kaypro, Televideo, Sequa, Chamelian(spelling?), Epson and 1 or 2 others. He rates Epson as the most solid machine and Kaypro second. Never gets an Epson back and seldom gets a Kaypro back. Says he knows when he sells a Sequa it will be back the next day with 50% probability it will be back same day he sells it. Says he can count on 6 or 8 returns before he fixes it enough to be useful. Kaypro now has IBM compatible for PC, XT and AT. Jim ------- >From: Nathaniel Polish <POLISH@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA> Avoid the Sequa. Its that simple. A friend bought one and had no end of trouble -- hardware bugs and numerous software incompatabilities. It was an early model but even so... He flew out to see what they were about (for reasons that are not important) and found the average age of the people in the company was ~18. I presume they are 20 by now. Two years ago they were the only PC compatable that was portable -- today there are many and from reputable sources like Columbia, KayPro, Eagle and TeleVideo. They may have gotten their act together in the last year or two; but, they really were in bad shape two years ago. Good luck Nat Polish -- UUCP: {genrad,cbosgd}!wjh12!h-sc4!harvard!chase {seismo,harpo,ihnp4,linus,allegra,ut-sally}!harvard!chase ARPA: chase@harvard CSNET: chase%harvard@csnet-relay