The_Kitchen_Guy
Silver Member
- 12,458
Back in the early 1980's, the computer industry was going through big changes, much of it driven by the rising popularity of the IBM-PC. Computer users were moving from large, centralized processing to distributed processing. The IBM-PC drove that migration.
Here's a parody thread where you can actually learn something.
IBM owned the MIS Information market, the second largest producer of computers was Digital Equipment Corporation, otherwise known as DEC.
The IBM-PC could be connected to IBM mainframes and was aimed at those customers. So, DEC needed a machine that could talk to DEC mainframes. DEC introduced their line of personal computers, three different micro-computers.
The most interesting of the three was called the Rainbow.
Before the IBM-PC, most of the microcomputers in the marketplace were based on the Zilog Z-80 processor and ran an operating system known as CP/M. The IBM-PC was based on the Intel 8088 processor and ran an operating system that was a specially modified version of MS-DOS that was called PC-DOS. (Microsoft Disc Operating System and Personal Computer Disc Operating System, respectively, and both were the basis of Bill Gates' incredible wealth today.)
The DEC Rainbow had dual processors, both a Z-80 and 8088, and it could boot as a CP/M machine, MS-DOS machine, or as a DEC VT-100 terminal, one of the most popular (and standard) terminals in the industry. (If you're a real techno-geek, you'll want to know that it ran both the 8-bit and 16-bit versions of CP/M.)
Besides being able to boot as any one of three machines, it had some other unique and peculiar features. To save room (and probably money) the dual disc drive used one motor and head. Discs inserted into the upper drive were upside down, relative to the lower drive. Speaking of, the discs were proprietary to DEC and the machine did not have a FORMAT command. That meant users had to purchase diskettes from DEC, but more importantly, they could not be read by other maker's diskette drives.
Except that it could read and write specially IBM-PC formatted diskettes, though, which allowed the Rainbow to share data with IBM-PC's, something that was unique in the industry. (The diskettes had to be formatted single-sided to be read by DEC's goofy dual drive setup.)
It was a doomed system, though, as the IBM-PC became the standard on which all other personal computers were based. Technologically superior machines from DEC, HP, Texas Instruments and Wang fell by the wayside. The only choices we had were the first (and only, for awhile) "IBM Compatible" computer, the Compaq Portable, until the Apple Macintosh came out in 1984.
So, that's what I think of when I see Teresa's thread - another Rainbow PC.
Here's a parody thread where you can actually learn something.
IBM owned the MIS Information market, the second largest producer of computers was Digital Equipment Corporation, otherwise known as DEC.
The IBM-PC could be connected to IBM mainframes and was aimed at those customers. So, DEC needed a machine that could talk to DEC mainframes. DEC introduced their line of personal computers, three different micro-computers.
The most interesting of the three was called the Rainbow.
Before the IBM-PC, most of the microcomputers in the marketplace were based on the Zilog Z-80 processor and ran an operating system known as CP/M. The IBM-PC was based on the Intel 8088 processor and ran an operating system that was a specially modified version of MS-DOS that was called PC-DOS. (Microsoft Disc Operating System and Personal Computer Disc Operating System, respectively, and both were the basis of Bill Gates' incredible wealth today.)
The DEC Rainbow had dual processors, both a Z-80 and 8088, and it could boot as a CP/M machine, MS-DOS machine, or as a DEC VT-100 terminal, one of the most popular (and standard) terminals in the industry. (If you're a real techno-geek, you'll want to know that it ran both the 8-bit and 16-bit versions of CP/M.)
Besides being able to boot as any one of three machines, it had some other unique and peculiar features. To save room (and probably money) the dual disc drive used one motor and head. Discs inserted into the upper drive were upside down, relative to the lower drive. Speaking of, the discs were proprietary to DEC and the machine did not have a FORMAT command. That meant users had to purchase diskettes from DEC, but more importantly, they could not be read by other maker's diskette drives.
Except that it could read and write specially IBM-PC formatted diskettes, though, which allowed the Rainbow to share data with IBM-PC's, something that was unique in the industry. (The diskettes had to be formatted single-sided to be read by DEC's goofy dual drive setup.)
It was a doomed system, though, as the IBM-PC became the standard on which all other personal computers were based. Technologically superior machines from DEC, HP, Texas Instruments and Wang fell by the wayside. The only choices we had were the first (and only, for awhile) "IBM Compatible" computer, the Compaq Portable, until the Apple Macintosh came out in 1984.
So, that's what I think of when I see Teresa's thread - another Rainbow PC.