Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!hugh@hel-ace
From: hugh%hel-ace@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re:  GRiD computer
Message-ID: <13467@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Nov-83 17:03:44 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13467
Posted: Tue Nov  8 17:03:44 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Nov-83 06:36:29 EST
Lines: 24

From:      Hugh A. L. Dempsey <hugh@hel-ace>


I've used the GRiD Compass Computer and I think that it is excellent.
It is supposed to withstand 100 g's of acceleration; part of the reason
for that magnesium case.  There is no fan for cooling--which makes it
very quiet in operation--but does cause the case to get "comfortably
warm"--to quote the salesman.  You can get a 10M hard disk drive with
a 380K floppy disk drive built-in for backups to attach to the Compass
for another $4000.  A single floppy for travelling costs about $1000.

You can get BASIC, PASCAL, and FORTRAN, with C being promised in the
near future.  There are various application programs available: a
VT100 terminal emulator for telephone connections, a spreadsheet
program, a graph maker, a word processor, and a data base manager.
All of the above application programs use the same commands and write
mutually accesible files: you can easily transfer the data from your
spreadsheet to your graph maker.

You can find reviews of the Compass in back issues of BYTE, Personal
Computing, and Popular Computing.


			hugh@brl