"Barn" finds - Victor 9000, Rex Microcomputer and Intersil DevelopmentSystem

[JP Hindin]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007, Allison wrote:
> REX was late like 1979 to early 80s not later than 1985 time frame.
> They were not seen around my travels and I wondered if they were really
> vaporware. It's a Z80 CP/M crate.  More like Robin not Rainbow.

I managed to find a little more on the Rex not long after I posted to the
list, naturally. I haven't got any 5.25" CP/M disks immediately handy -
except for my C128, which I'm imagining isn't going to be of much use.
Finding some should be too hard.
>
> >The last is quite a beasty, weighing plenty thanks to its significantly
> >hefty linear power supply. Intersil Development System, ISB 80DS 3020-120.
> >Got six apparently serial ports on the back with what I think is a console
> >cable hanging out one side. What I like best is the socket mounted in the
> >front plate for reading/writing 24 pin DIP chips. Two 8" drives with
> >diskettes in them, God only knows if they're still good after sitting out
> >for this long.
>
> Likely a 6100 (PDP-8 in cmos) powered deveopment system though they
> sold  1802, 80c85 and 80C88 too.

Now THAT interests me. When I was flipping through boards in the Intersil
I did find a Z80 - so I assumed it was Z80 powered, but I suppose it's
plausible it would use the Z80 for something else. How would I determine
this? I know _zip_ about Intersil.


> With some TLC they sould still run if rust or corrosion are not evident.

I didn't get any OS disks with the Victor, although I know it runs MSDOS
I'm not sure how the disks are formatted. I tried with a random diskette
labelled "MSDOS" and didn't get any joy - but the machine appeared to
power up and gave me an adorable little graphic of a floppy disk that
blinked, presumably indicating no OS diskette - a good sign it's in some
kind of working shape :)

Does anyone out there have a Victor/Sirius with OS diskettes they might be
able to clone for me?

Muchas gracias!