Hi people,
I've just recently bought a SORD M23EX, just the cpu, not monitor or keyboard, and no software at all.
It seems that is a m23 MK41 in a M68 case with a twin 5,25 floppy drive DSHD.
Do you know anything about this computer?? I've been searching for software or video interface but no success
Thank you very much in advance
Do you have pictures ? The info on the M23 is that the board is built into the keyboard assembly like a Commodore VIC20 or C64. The floppies are in an external enclosure.
With the M68 case the board was inside the floppy enclosure which sort of resembled a thin clone XT case according to this youtube tear down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euec95uR_YA
Being that you have the M32EX which is the M68 case and floppies but with the M23 motherboard inside you will need the keyboard.
Also I got some other news and bad news... being a Z80 based system you will have to run CP/M or the original SORD FDOS. Bad news is no manuals found yet for any of them.
Found M23 BASIC: https://archive.org/details/sord-m23-basic but it is not the full OS AFAIK...
Also found an old SORD World magazine scan from 1984 but it does not say much about the M23...
That is all I found in a quick search....
edit: found some info
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Found a bit more info. Cannot help with the manuals but you should be able to run DOS+ (or DOS Plus) but it has to be put on a floppy disk that is formatted exact to the machine. Those at WInworld are formatted for Amstrad...
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.cpm/c/wp_oQTON7EA look for poster CBFalconer, he had a website that has Dos+ with good instructions if you can handle some hex editing...
his file archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20100222001229/htt … t/download/cpm/
Your machine with the Mk 41 floppy drives does not use FAT12 DOS floppy format so you have to reformat the 5.25" HD floppy disks to match your system:
"what Sord called "Mk 41" drives, which are 5.25" DSHD drives formatted with 77 tracks to give around 1 MB storage. They use a YE-Data YD-380 1710 drive. "
someone working on an emulator for the SORD family: https://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3862
just some basic info:
SORD M23 MK41 (also known as SORD M23mark41):
Z80A (4 MHz)
mathematical coprocessor Am 9511
128 KB RAM
12 "green standard, 14" color monitor (640x200, 8 colors) upgrade
ports: 3x for additional ROM modules, 2x serial, 1x parallel
peripherals: 2x 5 1/4" floppy disk 1 MB
Runs CP/M for Z80 or FDOS and CBASIC, Also should run DOS+
M68 MK41:
M68000 (10MHz), 256 KB RAM, max 1 MB
Z80A (4 MHz), 64 KB RAM, mathematical coprocessor Am 9511
12 "green or 12" color monitor (640x400, 16 colors)
ports: 2x serial, 1x parallel, 1x IEEE-488
peripherals: 2x 8" floppy disk 1 MB, mark41: 2x 5 1/4" floppy disk 1 MB
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
