🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bss49z.E75@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>,
 sysmark@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt) writes:
> By the way, I also believe that the original Rainbow had both an 8088 and a
> Z80, so that you "could run either 16-bit or 8-bit CP/M", as they so proudly
> boasted during that silly live-by-satellite, direct-from-Maynard product
> announcement at whatever DECUS symposium it was (Spring 83?).  My choice of
> *two* CP/M options?  Whoopie.

I always thought the 16-bit processor was for MS-DOS, and the 8-bit for CP/M.
Of course, the 8-bit processor handled the I/O for the 16-bit one when running
MS-DOS.  Anyway, you have to remember the micro market in the early 1980's.
Almost all the PD software was written for CP/M, and there was a large base.
It wasn't unreasonable at the time to offer a good CP/M and a lesser version
of that upstart MS-DOS.  Being able to run both CP/M and MS-DOS was a great
feature then.  But DEC was a *long* way from being able to market them well.
The thing I disliked about the Rainbow was that all the MS-DOS software had
to be written with it in mind... it wasn't PC compatible.
--
Harry Flowers                           Internet: FLOWERS@MEMSTVX1.MEMST.EDU
Memphis State University                & Bitnet: FLOWERS@MEMSTVX1