Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!apple!agate!ucbvax!TRANSARC.COM!Pat_Barron
From: Pat_Barron@TRANSARC.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Info wanted about VT180
Message-ID: <0bJ_ewH0BwweN1WWhK@transarc.com>
Date: 29 Nov 90 06:29:16 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 22

Through very little effort on my own part, I seem to have acquired a few
VT180 systems.  They seem to be VT100-AA's with an extra board (which says
it's a "VT180" board), which connects to a box with dual RX180 floppies
in it.  When powered up, they select both floppy drives in turn, and then
identify themselves as "VT18X 1.1", with a date (presumably the date the ROM
bootstrap was compiled) some time in 1981.  They then present a menu offering
to boot the system from one of drives A through D, execute self tests, or
go into terminal mode (making it just behave like a regular VT100, as far as
I can tell).

Can anybody tell me what these systems are all about?  What software runs on
them, can it still be gotten?  What is the processor?  I'm suspecting it's some
sort of LSI-11 based thing, but I'm not sure.  And what about these RX180
floppy drives?  Are they "normal" floppy drives (where "normal" is defined as
either single or double sided, single or double density format, as would be
found on most micros), or are they perhaps RX50 compatible?

Inquring minds want to know....  While I can always use another terminal, it
might be fun to make these things do more than be just VT100's....

Thanks!
--Pat.