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From: cem@intelca.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: servo computer products
Message-ID: <17@intelca.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jul-85 13:40:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: intelca.17
Posted: Thu Jul 11 13:40:57 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 11:32:20 EDT
References: <732@abnji.UUCP>
Organization: Intel, Santa Clara, Ca.
Lines: 67

> 
> 	I am considering the purchase of the Servo 8 single board Z80
> system.  It features:
      ... List some features ...
> 
> 	The only competing product I see is the new Little Board
> 
> 1)  Does anybody have any first hand information on either of the
> 	above or similar boards?

  I own a "Little Board" so yes the information is "First Hand" (left to
  be specific :-))

> 2)  The Servo is approx. $600 for everything.
> 	The Little Board is $350 + $100 for the SCSI adapter,
> 	but it is a Z80 A (4 Mhz).
 
  Looks like the L.B. is $150 cheaper, just so happens that is the exact
  cost of the Integrand enclosure designed for it.

> 	I am deciding which to buy.  I favor the Servo system
> since it is all integrated, faster and +5 volt only,
> but that is not taking into account the company's and
> product's reliability.

  Of your three points a.) More integrated may also mean larger, the 
  L.B. has the identical form factor to a 5-1/4" disk drive so that
  it can be mounted on top of one, additionally I believe the L.B. plus
  has the SCSI adapter builtin to the system. c.) 5 Volt only is great
  if you are not running this thing with a disk, since the standard 
  minifloppy power supply provides +5 and +12 you can run the L.B. from
  the same supply that is running the disk. Note : the little board 
  cannot control 8" drives. As for reliabilty I believe they are both
  relatively new, Ampro less so. There is a thriving user community and
  Ampro does provide a generous amount of software such as CP/M 2.2 and
  ZCPR3 (which is pretty damn powerful) I don't know if Servo provides
  any such.

> 	Have any of you made a similar choice?
 
  Yes.

> 	What is the difference between the SASI and SCSI busses?

  The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is an outgrowth (ie ansi
  standard) of the Shugart Associates Systems Interface. It is mostly
  upward compatible. The Ampro people extend it a little further than 
  that for their own purposes while still maintaining compatiblity.

> 			Jeff 'very soft and furry' Skot
> 			at the microprocessor based ATT IS Somerset

More and more of these systems are appearing (makes you wonder about
CP/M sometimes) and the level of integration is getting amazing. For
a bit more CPU power Ampro announced the Little Board/186 which is
based on the 80186, has .5 Mbytes of RAM and the SCSI builtin. It 
is also the same form factor as the 5-1/4" disk drive. Don't know
what they will be selling them for.

[Not affiliated with Ampro just happen to have some info.]

--Chuck
-- 
"Unix, the Teco of Operating Systems."      - - - D I S C L A I M E R - - - 
{ihnp4,fortune}!dual\                     All opinions expressed herein are my
        {qantel,idi}-> !intelca!cem       own and not those of my employer, my
 {ucbvax,hao}!hplabs/                     friends, or my avocado plant. :-}