WANG micro? found

[Dave McGuire]

On Sep 30, 2006, at 2:30 PM, Jay West wrote:
> Ok, I went there and took a picture, you can see it at http:// 
> www.ezwind.net/jwest/whatsit/09300001.JPG
>
> The "aspect ratio" in the picture is misleading. While the front of  
> the cpu isn't perfectly square, it is more square than the picture  
> would lead you to believe. In the 3rd party floppy boxes are loads  
> of WANG label software, as well as customer disks. In the brown box  
> is about a 1.5 foot long stretch of silver padded WANG binders/ 
> manuals, many with original software disks. I noticed some stuff  
> mentioning 2780/3780 communications software which grabbed my  
> attention. The monitor hooks up to the cpu with an odd "dual din  
> cable". Two din connectors on each end, one has about 9 pins the  
> other has about 5 pins. The monitor obviously gets both power and  
> data on this dual cable.
>
> The CPU appears to be something called a "Wang Professional  
> Computer" from what I can glean from the docs. The model tag on the  
> back is extremely faded black print on silver so it's just a  
> shadow. It seems to say the model is something vaguely like PM-XC1.  
> There is an IBM mono "module" which has a part number something  
> like PM101 and a "winchester controller module" which has a part  
> number like PM029.
>
>> From just a 30 second skim of some of the manuals it appears to be  
>> running a
> very customized version of DOS. The proprietary changes to the OS  
> appear to be more than just cosmetic.

   Ahh yes, I used to service those.  They run DOS but they're not  
*quite* PC compatible.  I LOVE the video on those machines...those  
little monitors are so wonderfully sharp!

   They use a proprietary bus, and Wang had quite a few options  
available for them.  They even had the BNC/TNC cable-based interface  
to connect to the larger Wang OIS and VS systems.

   Fun machines.  Built like tanks.

               -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL