1983 Micro prices (was Re: The Origins of DOS)

[Chris M]

--- Witchy <witchy at binarydinosaurs.co.uk> wrote:

> I've got half a dozen RM boxen from the period and
> only one is called
> 'nimbus' - the PC1, the others are labelled as AX
> and VX machines though
> that doesn't mean they weren't Nimbii internally :)
> (nimbuses?)

 The first unit to be called a Nimbus had an 80186.
It's been said recently that a 186 put to "full use"
will have port assignments that differ from IBM's
standard. I doubt that any later models were
"Nimbus'", being that people generally learn from
their mistakes (i.e wouldn't produce a second computer
that had compatibility issues). A notable exception
would be the Texas Instruments Professional, which
apparently was "upgraded" with an 80286, and was
available in both desktop and portable versions. I
don't know if he enhancement simply an add-on card,
for these were available from 3rd parties.
 I want one :(
 Of course a designer could ignore the on chip
integrated peripheralsof the 186, which I believe was
largely the case with the Tandy 2000 (from memory it
has nearly every peripheral chip a 5150 had) - which
would make you wonder why they used it to begin with.


 
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