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Bright events are really rare. And this is probably good. The human psyche is simply unable to withstand a constant stream of strong emotions. The history of computer technology is no exception. Most of the computers created by humans are not particularly remembered. Today, our virtual time machine is sent to those winter days of 1976, when an event that determined the course of history took place: the dull screen of a microcomputer monitor was illuminated for the first time by the rainbow color.
Compucolor 8001, which we will talk about today, is special and bright ... more precisely color. You ask: “What is so special about it? The computer screen should be colored and only colored! ”But in those days, people had not forgotten how to admire. Therefore, in 1976, Compucolor 8001 was a stranger from a beautiful future.
Now the facts. Compucolor 8001 was born in December 1976, that is, at New Year's Eve at times, when everyone is in a hurry to go shopping. It cost 2,690 US dollars and was based on an Intel 8080 processor with a clock frequency of 2 megahertz.
It differed from its counterparts with a built-in 19-inch color electron-beam display that supports: in the text mode, 8 colors (at a resolution of 80 x 48); in graphic mode, too, 8 colors (at a resolution of 192 x 160). Depending on the assembly, it could have one or two RS-232 ports. The drive was magnetic disks written and readable by an external floppy drive connected to the computer.
RAM of this computer: from 4 to 32 kilobytes. The software platform Compucolor 8001, that is, the similarity of the operating system, was a special kind of BASIC: Compucolor BASIC.
It all started like this: in 1973, Charles Muench (Charles A. Muench) founded the company Intelligent Systems Corporation (ISC), which was to develop computer terminals with support for color graphics. Recall that in those years monochrome TTY-terminals dominated.
The first fruit of these works appeared in February 1976. 37 years ago, the Intecolor 8001 saw the light, a 19-inch professional CRT terminal (RCA), which was offered as an assembly kit for 1, 395 US dollars. The system has four kilobytes of RAM. We will not be too distracted and just recall: in those days computers were often offered to buyers in the form of a kind of “constructors” that the user had yet to assemble.
Less than a year, and in December 1976, the Intecolor 8001 from the interface device turned into a full-fledged self-contained computer. At the same time, it went up by 1, 295 US dollars and began to cost 2,690 US dollars. So the color terminal Intecolor 8001 has turned into Compucolor 8001, an expandable computer based on the programming language of BASIC.
Compucolor 8001 (which was also called Compucolor I in the development process) is often referred to as “the first desktop computer with color graphics.” In order to avoid misunderstanding his “superiority”, it should be clarified: it is considered the first of the self-sufficient computers with color graphics. Colored terminals met earlier.
Compucolor 8001 supported three operating modes: cathode ray tube mode (CRT Mode); Compucolor BASIC; operating system central processing unit (CPU). The latter mode was optional, that is, it could or could not be supported depending on the configuration features.
When the RESET button was pressed for the first time, the computer was switched on in a cathode ray tube mode, providing interaction with an external computer system via the RS-232 serial port. That is, in this mode, he acted as an external terminal (monitor with a keyboard, if it is simplified to express the essence of the type of devices that have long become the property of history) to a large computer.
Pressing the “ESC + W” keyboard shortcut translated Compucolor 8001 into Compucolor BASIC mode, which allowed the user to enter and run programs in this programming language.
Provided the option 34 was installed, pressing the “ESC + P” keys put the computer into the CPU Operating System mode (CPU operating system), which was similar to the “Monitor” operating system mode. He allowed the operator (so called the user) to manage the contents of the system memory, read and write data to tape cartridges, and also execute programs.
ISC President Charles Muench noted that he had independently analyzed the Microsoft BASIC programming language developed for the computer and he “reworked it” for use on Compucolor 8001, but “acquired the BASIC source code from Microsoft so that everything would be legal.”
Programming Instructions for BASIC 8001 was included in the Compcolor 8001 User Guide. Today this document, which has become the most important historical source, occupies 10 megabytes in PDF format. The user manual also addressed other issues that helped the user quickly get used to their wonderful computer.
About tape cartridges. An external drive could support one or two eight-track tape cartridges, which were 4800 baud in speed (approximately 600 text characters per second). Up to 1,000 24 kilobytes of data could be stored on a single cartridge. One program was placed on the same track. Accordingly, up to eight programs could be placed on the “cartridge”.
These tape cartridges were a close analogue to conventional cassette tapes, the very ones that were actively used to record music in the seventies and eighties of the last century.
There was even an opportunity to connect a wonder-new product to the Compcolor 8001, an external floppy disk drive (floppy disk drive). But, he served for a short time and the performance caused criticism. Therefore, there were only twenty-five such drives sold for the Compcolor 8001.
At the end of 1977, serious changes occurred in this direction. Began to appear more "compatible with reality" diskettes and drives to read them.
The fourth (optional) operating mode Compcolor 8001, called FCS (File Control System), allowed you to take advantage of floppy disks and was activated by pressing the keyboard shortcut "ESC + D". This “file control system” was somewhat similar to the DOS operating system, allowing the user to access and work with data on additional media (for example, mini-disks), to load and save programs and data.
The keyboard Compucolor 8001 from the company Collimation was unique. It can even be considered "pseudo-sensory" or "semi-sensory." No, no, it was not our usual touchscreen. Everything was quite traditional and in the spirit of the time: large “teeth” of solid physical keys. But, meanwhile ...
She did not contain mechanical contacts and joints, which are so often contaminated. It was an optical keyboard. In order not to go into boring technical details, let us somewhat simplify the description of the principle of its operation.
Inside, the keyboard contained two arrays: LEDs and photocells. A certain kind of keystroke corresponded to a certain LED light signal, which was perceived by the photocells and was transmitted to the command given to the computer.
Inside the computer there was a kind of "cabinet" for eight slots for microcircuits. These cards had 100-pin connectors, but were not S-100 compatible.
"Baby" Compucolor 8001 was large and heavy. He weighed more than 38 kilograms. And without an external drive, it was absolutely useless as a self-contained computer. However, already in 1978, Intecolor introduced the Compucolor II for the consumer market, which (in its minimal configuration) could be purchased for $ 1,995.
Even now, enthusiasts cherish a few dozen archives of diskettes with programs for Compucolor systems.
Source: Oldcomputers.net
The article is based on materials .
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