MCMANIS%USC-ECLC%sri-nic@sri-unix.UUCP (01/06/84)
From: Chuck McManis <MCMANIS%USC-ECLC@sri-nic> Well we finally got the ZRT80 from Digital Research Computers (of Texas) and for $140 it is quite a deal. As supplied the board is an almost H19 compatible. Almost because the Ansi Escape Sequences are missing. However it does seem to work well with emacs on TOPS-20, only occasionally getting lost when emacs goes into ansi mode to do several insert lines at once. Also it has a 256 character input buffer so there are generally no fill characters needed for operation (exceptions are clear screen and insert line at 19.2K) The board itself is small only 6" by 9" and apparently well laid out (I have yet to try to listen to a radio near it.) The best feature is that the source to the firmware is provided on a CP/M compatible 8" disk, as well as a character editor for making your own character sets. The documentation is unfortunately poor, but not indecipherable if you have some micro hardware experience. I have heard that the board will fit in the cabinet of a Jameco ASCII keyboard kit ($60). The power requirements are +5 at 1.25 Amps and +/- 12 at 25Ma. You can use a DC-DC converter for the RS232 voltages and need only buy a 5 volt supply. In this power category usually less than $20. Add a monitor or reconditioned TV and you are off and running. Notes, two of the connectors supplied are 6 pin and you have to modify them to be a 5 and 3 pin connector. This is easy to do, pull out the uneeded pins, but not mentioned in the manual. There are 3 2K Ram slots unused and 1 2732 ROM socket unused in the basic design so that the board can be expanded. The firmware works but could be improved considerably to include extra pages of video ram, Soft setup with a status line etc. The display of 25 lines X 80 characters was crisp on our RCA video monitor, the comments in the firmware show how to increase this to 66 lines if you can afford a motorola hires monitor or equivalent. Hope a few of these get into the hands of hobbiests like myself who are interested in improving them as there is a lot of terminal here for the money. Of course if the terminal Ciarcia is building is any better than maybe it was to late to take advantage of the market. --Chuck -------