VOGONS


Some 8088 Portable Love

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First post, by x_86

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Recently picked up this unit. Just wanted to share as I thought this was an odd looking Compatible. Might post pictures of some of the controllers inside as I'm having trouble identifying them. That is if anyone is interested in looking. Otherwise here's the oddball.

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Reply 1 of 24, by Jo22

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Wow! Lovely unit, thanks for sharing! ^^

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 4 of 24, by x_86

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Thanks everyone. I've actually done some heavy research on this portable.

It is a model dataCAT by DATACRAFT, INC Garden, California. The only documentation I could pull up on the system was a report done by DOE in 1987 found here https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/lib-www … bs/00120075.pdf , along with a couple other places. I contacted the National Library for the Los Alamos plant and they actually had the original document so it was scanned in color and emailed to me. There's next to no information available on the actual company, just an address and phone number:

DATACRAFT INC.
13714 S. Normandie Ave
Gardena, Ca 90248
Phone (213) 321-2320

Reply 5 of 24, by x_86

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I realize that was not the machines intended purpose, just the only thing referencing it. I can't seem to find any kind of consumer advertisement of the dataCAT or any information anywhere else. Maybe a failed business venture.

Reply 8 of 24, by x_86

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Originally this machine would of had the hard card disk drive. Well, according to that DOE document the card here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcard#/media … glass_cover.JPG

was in their order of the unit, same brand. I can also say there have been cards taken out of this in the past, switched around, and even floppy disk drive changes. I assume this because of certain screws used in various places indicate tampering, which is totally fine, its a computer.

Reply 9 of 24, by x_86

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Here are some 'ok' photos. The card furthest to the outside is the video card. Looks to have 1x CGA/EGA and 1x RCA display ports on the back. I haven't spent much time on the inside. The CPU is a NEC V20, the MathCo is an Intel 8087. I'm curious what clock the CPU is at. When you boot the machine it seems slow to validate the memory. Compared to another clone I have that runs at 10MHz, it validates memory very fast, I believe its the same CPU. I'll check on that.

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Reply 10 of 24, by AlaricD

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Where's the "Heart" react button for this?

That's simply amazing.

"The Big Bang. The ultimate hero of low frequency. The divine intergalactical bass drum connecting the tribes of our solar system."
Yello
"Solar Driftwood"

Reply 11 of 24, by Errius

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Can you run the old Norton Utilities System Information (SI) and show what it displays?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_PC_5150.jpg

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 12 of 24, by x_86

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Sure can, may I ask what your interest is? Just curiosity?

Anyways I think I remember seeing a Norton folder on the Worm-Drive, might have some utilities on there. Otherwise I only have Norton-Utils on 5 1/4, I'll figure it out either way when I'm home.

Reply 14 of 24, by Jo22

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Me, too. That machine is quite charming, looks a bit like a classic oscilloscope to me.
By the style, it wouldn't have been an out-of-place item in some mid-late 70s movie, either. 😎

PS: If you can, please make yourself a backup copy of the firmware.
It comes in handy if the ROMs eventually fail. SaveROM can do that for you.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 15 of 24, by x_86

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Errius wrote:

Can you run the old Norton Utilities System Information (SI) and show what it displays?

Here are some pictures from Norton-Utils.

Jo22 wrote:

Me, too. That machine is quite charming, looks a bit like a classic oscilloscope to me.

Thanks for the SaveRom tip, and funny you mention the oscilloscope. When DOE used this style machine, they had a multichannel analyzer installed, pretty interesting stuff. I wonder if this AT was designed for the same purpose, there are a couple missing I/O covers on that back, so I know the configuration has had to been changed in the past.

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