david%isl@BRL.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (07/27/83)
I'm looking for other owners of the PMC Micromate Z80 computer. The company has been extremely uncooperative both in software bug fixes and in hardware documentation: they positively refuse to provide circuit diagrams (they have it, but it's not ready for release yet) and they tell me that if I fix any of the bugs in their BIOS then they can't be responsible for it any more. Since they're obviously not even supporting it NOW that's not much of an issue. However, if you should decide you're interested, be sure to get the documentation first. The Micromate is tiny (the size of a standard height 5" floppy on its side, and about twice as deep) and is generally well built. It fails to boot exactly once on power-up and then comes up fine when you hit the reset button. The 400K DDDS half-height floppy seems nice (it's a Panasonic JA-551-2). The software provided is CPM/3 which loses next to UNIX, but the whole thing does fit on the back of your motorcycle...also included is T/Maker, a reasonably clever software package which attempts to be an editor, a spreadsheet, a formatter, and a file manager all at once. It is well regarded and I find the editor to be easy to use, but the rest is a bit clumsy. If only they were a bit nicer at the factory....alas. If anyone out there has or know where to get the circuit diagram please reply to D. Gluss 141A Durand Stanford Univ. Stanford Ca. 94305 david%isl@su-dsn david%isl@sumex-aim