Intellec-mds 800

[Joe R.]

At 03:49 PM 9/4/04 -0400, you wrote:
>On Sat, 4 Sep 2004, Dave Mabry wrote:
>
>> Somehow I missed the original message in this thread, but maybe I can
clear up
>> a bit of Andy's confusion.
>> 
>> The Intellec MDS 800 is the development system that Intel sold to create
>> products on their 8080 and later processors.  It was itself based on what
>> later became known as the "Multibus" architecture.  It ran a 2MHz 8080
cpu and
>> was standard with 16K bytes of RAM.  You could add more, up to 64K that the
>> main cpu (the 8080) could address.
>> 
>> Intel sold a disk-drive subsystem that consisted of two Shugart 801 8"
floppy
>> drives.  They could work as single density or double density depending on
>> whether you had the 201 or 202 controller board set.  Yes, it was a set
of TWO
>> multibus board to control those two floppy drives.
>> 
>> Gary Kildall wrote the CP/M operating system for that computer and Intel
also
>> sold their own called ISIS-II (there might have been an ISIS without the
II,
>> but I never knew of it).
>> 
>> The system that Steve mentions here with an integrated CRT and keyboard
has to
>> be the follow-on product from Intel called the MDS Series II, a
different, but
>> compatible, system from the MDS-800.  The 800 needed an external terminal.
>
>Thanks for filling that in.  I don't know a lot about this unit.  It came 
>from the local university surplus outlet, and was accompanied by reams of 
>documentation, diskettes and EPROM burner modules.  It has the dual drive 
>subsystem, but I have not gone into it to see what the controllers are.


   Here are some pictures of a couple of my 800s
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds800_3/> and
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds800_4/>. Here
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds.htm> is a webpage that I started (but
never finished) that describes some of the 2xx models.   Here is a MOL
finished webpage about one of my other MDS-800s,
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/mds-800/mds-800.htm>. It includes pictures
and descriptions of most of the various MDS-800 cards.

   Here, <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/multibus/multibus.html> is a webpage
that I swtarted about Multibus cards. It includes both Intel and non_intel
cards.  I'm WAY behind with the updates for it.

    Joe



>
>It keeps my HP64000 company.  Picked one of them up at the same time, 
>along with probably every bit of documentation, pods and software ever 
>made for it.  Hard to find anyone who's even heard of them (besides you, 

   I have two of them sitting in storage. But I'm not really interested in
them and I shipped most of the docs and SW and small parts to Frank McConnell.

    Joe


>Dave <g>).







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