mjb@ritcv.UUCP (Mikel J Brown) (09/28/83)
************************************* HELP! ************************************* I am looking for several pieces of information regarding the DEC Rainbow 100. I am using the CPM operating system with the unit. 1. Does anyone out there in microland have any specs on how to address the communication ports on the Rainbow? 2. Better yet, does anyone have information on any communication packages that are currently up for the Rainbow? 3. I am also looking for information on initializing scratch discs for the same machine. Currently, I am aware of only the pre-formatted discs available through a couple of vendors. 4. I am interested in a letter quality printer that can be hung off the Rainbow for a price under $2000 ( including extraneous hardware ). Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanx muchly ... mjb
LCAMPBELL@dec-marlboro@sri-unix.UUCP (10/03/83)
From: Larry Campbell <LCAMPBELL@dec-marlboro> You can get documentation from DEC that tells you where the comm ports are. I don't have the number handy, but it's called something like the "Rainbow Technical Documentation Set", and it's referenced in the back of one of the manuals that comes with the Rainbow. There are three communication packages available for the Rainbow that I've tried: 1) Poly-XFR, from Polygon Associates, in St. Louis (this is distributed by DEC so you can get it through your retailer). Pretty good stuff. Does terminal emulation, and file transfers between the Rainbow and VAX/VMS, RSTS, RSX, and RT-11. 2) Kermit, in the public domain, available over the ARPANET from Columbia University (mail to Frank daCruz, daCruz@COLUMBIA-20 for details). Does terminal emulation and file transfers between other PC's running Kermit, and VAX/VMS, Unix, TOPS-20, and a few other operating systems. The version I have doesn't work in server mode, but does work in command mode, and the terminal emulation works fine. 3) MODEM7, the venerable old CP/M public domain comm package. I have a version that doesn't work at all. Maybe someone out there has a working one, but I haven't seen it. By the way, Poly-XFR costs money ($150??? not sure...) but works pretty well. Kermit is the Best Buy; it's free and works OK. You can buy a formatting program from a couple of different outfits for about sixty dollars, but DEC will be shipping one with the 100+ that you can get if you're still on a service contract, for free. Actually I believe the DEC retail stores have the program and will give you one for free; if you're dealing with some other store (like Computerland) they should also have it and should give you one. Any Rainbow you buy now will come with it; DEC realized that not shipping it was a lose. Letter-quality printers: there are many, but the best I've seen for the money is the Transtar (don't remember the model number). It's about $600 and produces very good output. Hope this helps... - Larry Campbell --------