Mooers@bbna@sri-unix.UUCP (09/14/83)
From: Charlotte D. Mooers <Mooers@bbna> A professor in India needs advice about choosing a microcomputer for general use by his students. The organiztion has a Hewlett-Packard mini, but he considers the HP micros too expensive. What would be a good choice? Bear in mind (a) the problem of sending machines outside the country for repairs is fierce, and (b) IBM has no presence in India -- they were unable to reach any agreement with the Indian government about setting up a subsidiary in India. A knowledgeable dealer I know suggested that they settle on a single-board computer because it would be easy to ship the board for repairs. Is this a good idea? Which single-board computer would be a good choice? The new Heath/Zenith trainer based on the Z80 and 8088 chips and compatible with the Z-100) is another possibility. H/Z has given some excellent price breaks to colleges. Any other suggestions? The professor has a graduate degree from MIT, and is generally knowledgeable about computers but he has missed out on the most recent developments in the micro revolution. (He thought I must be kidding when I described the chaos of disk formats for 5-1/4-inch diskettes.) ---Charlotte