Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana.edu!ogicse!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!percy!nosun!techbook!fzsitvay From: fzsitvay@techbook.com (Frank Zsitvay) Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy Subject: Re: tandy 2000-help Message-ID: <1990Dec7.095613.16289@techbook.com> Date: 7 Dec 90 09:56:13 GMT References: <90337.221530DPE101@psuvm.psu.edu> <90337.231316RFM@psuvm.psu.edu> <925@tsnews.Convergent.COM> Organization: TECHbooks of Beaverton Oregon - Public Access Unix Lines: 80 In article <925@tsnews.Convergent.COM> ward@tsnews.Convergent.COM (Ward Griffiths) writes: >RFM@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > >Actually, the 2000 was a damn fine machine well ahead of its >time: a true 16-bit DOS machine that was introduced about a >year and a half before IBM's PC/AT. The 80186 as 8 Mhz is >faster than the original 6 Mhz '286, the graphics was far >superior to anything available on "true" compatibles untill >much later, and the keyboard had separate numeric/cursor >keys, something IBM didn't think of for quite a while after >that. Damn straight... it basically was designed to be better than the ibm, but tandy found out, like everyone else, that being better was not necessarily better. The problem was that because of the different memory >map of the '186, and the superior graphics, many programs >which diddled with hardware directly to improve the pathetic >performance of "true" compatibles rather than make documented >system calls, especially just about anything with copy >protection, would not run correctly. well, it wasn't the fact that the t2k had a 186 that made it incompatible. there were some systems marketed that were entirely compatible with the ibm, but used the 186. however, there weren't many, because interfacing an 8087 to it was a headache, and the cost difference (at the time, and in 50,000 piece quantities, too) wasn't great enough to warrant designing a system around it. they were faster than a similarly clocked 8088, by about 30% to 40%. rather, if everyone followed the rules of portable programming there would have been little compatibilty problems. but it was difficult to write much of anything on an ibm pc/xt without going to the hardware because the machine's bios was so bloody slow to do anything. heck, you couldn't write a term program that would go faster than 1200 baud on those machines using the bios routines, because even though the system supports interrupt driven IO, the bios didn't. it was the same story with the video. it was faster for an application to manipulate video memory rather than let the bios do it. most of the orphaned machines were produced slightly before the clone craze, before ibm clone programming became a serios problem for them. at that time, it was expected that programmers would make their applications portable, but in trying to do so the overall performance of the machine was, in many cases, worse than 2 mhz z80 systems these machines were supposed to replace. this made a $3005 pc system with one 160k floppy look awfully bad in light of 6mhz z80 boxes with gobs of mass storage (relatively speaking,) that could run rings around ibm. these 'sorta' clones did have their advantages. next to my desk is a DEC rainbow 100+. i often use it because it does something that my AT can't, which is having the equivalent of 896K of conventional memory. the extra headroom does come in handy... >Then again, I have a tendency to accumulate orphaned >hardware. Besides my 2000, I've got a TRS-80 Model 16 >running Xenix and an AT&T 3B1. > >The Tandy 1200, a "true" XT compatible was basically a piece >of crap. Among other things, they had a 40% motherboard >replacement rate during warranty. A big-time financial >loser from the points of view of store managers, as warranty >repairs are a black hole in the bottom line on which a Tandy >store manager's bonus is based. > >-- >The people that make Unisys' official opinions get paid more. A LOT more. Ward Griffiths, Unisys NCG aka Convergent Technologies >=========================================================================== To Hell with "Only One Earth"! Try "At Least One Solar System"! > >"Let's get out of here. They've run out of meat. Funerals are a pain when there are more than twenty people. Never get enough to eat." Donald Kingsbury, "Courtship Rite": Gaet to Honey -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - but don't quote me on that.... American Oil Company motto - Bend over, We'll pump!!!