Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site redwood.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amd!fortune!rhino!redwood!rpw3
From: rpw3@redwood.UUCP (Rob Warnock)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Data General/One
Message-ID: <91@redwood.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Dec-84 18:25:42 EST
Article-I.D.: redwood.91
Posted: Tue Dec  4 18:25:42 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 06:42:51 EST
References: <1835@sun.uucp>
Organization: [Consultant], Foster City, CA
Lines: 98

+---------------
| From: gnu@sun.uucp (John Gilmore)
| I'm surprised that nobody has commented on the Data General/One here.
| Perhaps nobody has seen it yet?
+---------------

I took a day trip down to the Fall COMDEX show (in Los Vegas) just before
Thanksgiving. Since I was just there for a day, I didn't linger at every
booth, but DID spend some time looking at the DG/One, among others.

	Observation: At every COMDEX one discovers an implicit "theme",
	as if everybody had decided to announce the same kind of product
	at once. "...When it's steamboat time, steamboats get built."
	Fall 1981 was small UNIX systems; '82 was 68000 workstations;
	'83 was windows, windows, windows,...; and 1984 is the year of
	the lap-top portable IBM-PC-compatible with 3-1/2" floppy and
	flat-panel 80 x 24 liquid-crystal display (*whew*).

There were also beaucoup 80 x 16 lap/PC/flop/LCDs in evidence, but the
80 x 24 were plentiful enough that you knew the smaller guys had missed
the window, so to speak (*chortle*). On almost all of them, the display
is on a "flip top" that closes when the unit is powered off. On many of
them the display lid also closes and/or locks the keyboard, acting as a
dust cover. After seeing the large number of them, I am convinced that
LCDs are now "real".

Even among that throng, the DG/One stood out as the only one I saw (I was
rushed, remember) that had a FULL SIZED display -- it's nearly the surface
area of a 12" CRT monitor, and the same aspect ratio. The other 80 x 24
systems were very scrunched in the vertical dimension, about half the height
you would expect, given the width.

The DG/One's display is bit-addressable: 640 x 250 (640 x 200 in "IBM mode",
whatever that means). The display is fast enough to do "page turning" demos,
and even to provide limited animation. Several of their demo screens would
first flash the whole page, then some piece of the picture would move in
roughly one-second steps. The "Take Off With Us" scene showed a runway with
a plane taking off. The plane moved about 5 or 6 times before the next screen
was presented. It was quite clean, and seemed to be more limited by the time
to compute the bits than the time to paint them.

+---------------
| ...I did note that none of Byte's pictures
| were with the screen turned on (though there were a few in the DG ad
| in the front of the magazine), and that Byte said "until I could get a
| video monitor for it, I wouldn't buy it".
| 
| What's the scoop?  Can you read the sucker all day or not?
+---------------

I think it would be just fine, though you do need ambient light to read
it (just like paper ;-} ). They had some internal argument about the color,
which none of their experts or consultants could resolve, so you get a
choice (at purchase time) of black/white or green/yellow. Both have a
brightness/contrast control, something I haven't seen on LCDs before. You
can adjust the overall shade of the display through quite a wide range.

+---------------
| I heard rumors that they're going to build in the 1200 baud modem (no
| big deal these days) and offer Unix (presumably with a hard disk) or some
| Uniclone.
+---------------

Let's see... What else did they say? Oh, yeah, it comes with 128K and
one floppy (720K!), but you can add a second floppy inboard and up to 512K
of RAM inboard. It comes a couple of other ports built in (RS-232, etc.).
There is a connector that goes to an external IBM-compatible expansion chassis,
so you can add additional peripherals AND EVEN MEMORY outside. The expander
uses "standard" IBM PC cards, so presumably you could plug almost anything in
(within the normal limits of compatibility glitches).  The connector has CMOS
levels, so you have to buy their interface adapter (or equivalent).  Some of
the DG-supplied portable (battery-powered) options connect directly to the
CMOS bus. They don't seem reticent about it, and were willing to discuss with
me how to build peripherals for it.

Kind of neat... come home from a trip, plug it into your expansion box,
fire up the hard disk or tape and copy off all of the floppies you have
written while you were on the road. It comes with re-chargable batteries,
and it is claimed to work for 8-9 hours if you are accessing the floppy
with a 25% duty cycle (longer if you touch the floppy less often). The
720K per floppy isn't bad, either.

It doesn't have a handle, but instead comes with a Macintosh-like padded
tote bag. Salesman: "We think a fine instrument like this shouldn't be
banged around." Sounds like they are just being realistic about the kind
of treatment lap-top portables are likely to get... ;-}

Altogether, it was a nice booth, and a nice presentation. The sales types
had plenty of technical information available, and were willing to share it.
It's not cheap (around $3K to start), but doesn't seem overpriced either,
if you really need a lap-top.

Rob Warnock

UUCP:	{ihnp4,ucbvax!amd}!fortune!redwood!rpw3
DDD:	(415)572-2607
Envoy:	rob.warnock/kingfisher
USPS:	510 Trinidad Ln, Foster City, CA  94404