Date   : Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:35:18 +0100
From   : tim.fardell@... (Tim Fardell)
Subject: OT: RM Nimbus

Darren Grant wrote:
> On 23/09/2009 17:14, "Rick Murray" <rick@...> wrote:
> 
>> So, then, whst's the quick spec of the RN Nimbus? I've heard of them,
>> but thought it was some sort of almost-PC that is perhaps notable for
>> being the only thing to use the 80186 CPU... correct?
> 
> Yes the early nimbus was a not quite PC it ran DOS and had network
> capabilities but all software was slightly non standard so it wouldn't run
> on a standard PC, I tried taking home a copy of paint or something from
> school and it wouldn't work on another PC.

Ours ran MS-DOS, so would run any MS-DOS software, provided it *only* 
used standard documented MS-DOS calls. You could enhance compatibility 
by executing "setpc ibm" which did I know not what, and allowed some 
PC software to work. "setpc rm" switched back into Nimbus mode.

There was apparently a version of MS Windows that ran on the Nimbus, 
but we didn't have it at our school.

The early Nimbuses were quite chunky, and had lovely, largeish 
paper-cone speakers for the 3-channel sound, and had an old IBM-XT 
layout keyboard. The later ones (dubbed "PC186") were slimmer, with a 
crappy piezo speaker, but a more modern AT-layout keyboard (i.e. the 
ones common on PCs now, only without the extra Windows keys). AFAIK, 
the differences were only cosmetic.

Later on, we got some Intel 486-based machines, which were still 
dubbed "Nimbus" and ran all the Nimbus software, but could also be 
switched into a full IBM-Compatible mode, and ran MS Windows.

To this day, I regret not getting one of the old Nimbuses when they 
were replaced :-(