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From: Mooers@bbna@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Choosing a micro for India?
Message-ID: <5507@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Sep-83 10:38:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.5507
Posted: Wed Sep 14 10:38:00 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Sep-83 20:22:13 EDT
Lines: 27

From:  Charlotte D. Mooers <Mooers@bbna>

A professor in India needs advice about choosing a microcomputer
for general use by his students.  The organiztion has a
Hewlett-Packard mini, but he considers the HP micros too
expensive.  What would be a good choice?  Bear in mind (a) the
problem of sending machines outside the country for repairs is
fierce, and (b) IBM has no presence in India -- they were unable
to reach any agreement with the Indian government about setting
up a subsidiary in India.

A knowledgeable dealer I know suggested that they settle on a
single-board computer because it would be easy to ship the board
for repairs.  Is this a good idea?  Which single-board computer
would be a good choice?

The new Heath/Zenith trainer based on the Z80 and 8088 chips and
compatible with the Z-100) is another possibility.  H/Z has given
some excellent price breaks to colleges.  Any other suggestions?

The professor has a graduate degree from MIT, and is generally
knowledgeable about computers but he has missed out on the most
recent developments in the micro revolution.  (He thought I must
be kidding when I described the chaos of disk formats for
5-1/4-inch diskettes.)

---Charlotte