A modem,
serial mouse,
serial printer,
serial "RS232" scanner, external drive (yes, they existed), serial control
of CD changer (consider Kubik 240 disc carousel (SCSI, but serial disc
change control)), serial EPROM programmer, serial drawing tablet, serial
X10 controller, serial VOTRAX, logging of UPS, etc.
On Thu, 1 Nov 2018, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote:
I absolutely agree that such bests of peripherally connected systems exist.
I would be shocked to hear that "every PC in the office" was equipped as
such.
OK, only one of the machines needs to do the UPS logging.
Although etiquette calls for only one VOTRAX operating at a time, they all
need to be connected.
OR,
the KUBIK was stackable! With four of them, and 4 serial ports, and 16
[wide] SCSI IDs (which poses a limitation), you could have 15 drives
accessing from 960 discs. (including the entire Walnut Creek collection?)
I do wonder how well software that used said peripherals dealt with COM ports
above 4.
SOME of those devices didn't need the full set of COM port capabilities.
Similarly, connecting more than 4 floppy drives posed some minor software
complications, particularly if accessing at BIOS (Int13h) level.
A pentagram physical arrangement on a round or 5 sided table needs
shortest cables.
As to the dark overlord, . . .
when Novell bought DRI, it was not because they wanted the content. They
wanted the IP rights as a shield. Imagine, if Adam Osborne had been a
little quicker in running out and buying a piece of the rubble of
VisiCorp, it would have shielded Paperback software from Lotus.
There is no better defense in an infringement lawsuit than owning rights
to the code that the plaintiff's system infringed on.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
