Basic Four

[jim s]

Mike Loewen wrote:
> 
>    Can one of you Basic Four experts identify the model for this control 
> panel?
> 
dont know the basic four model number, but it is a Microdata 1600 front 
       panel manufactured for Basic four.  They licensed their own 
version of the 1600 which formed the basis of their own manufactured 
systems, but later migrated to 2901 based bit slice systems then to 
68000's or such, I think.

They usually had front loading IOmec drives in them for disk drives. 
Some systems had small pertec tape drives (1/2" 800 bpi)

Cabinet was about 4' high.  Too high for a "desk" high, but not as tall 
as most minicomputers.

They could handle 8 or 16 users via rs232 boards.  They supported a 
centronics or data products line printer (with same blue color scheme)

A photo of a Basic 4 system with such a front panel can be viewed here:

http://www.microdata-alumni.org/images/BasicFour_MicrodataCPU.jpg

A microdata system with a similar panel is here:

http://www.microdata-alumni.org/images/Reality_fullsystem.jpg

A Microdata maintainence panel is nicely displayed on a manual cover here:

http://www.microdata-alumni.org/images/computer_design_march1972_micro-babe.jpg

Jim