Date   : Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:08:57 +0100
From   : afra@... (Phill Harvey-Smith)
Subject: OT: RM Nimbus

Theo Markettos wrote:
> They had better graphics than a contemporary PC, perhaps to compete with the
> BBC Micro (I think it was about EGA quality, which wasn't that cheap at the
> time).  The graphics weren't accessible in IBM mode - I think it dropped
> back to CGA.

I think it would also run in MDA mode also.

>> There was apparently a version of MS Windows that ran on the Nimbus, 
>> but we didn't have it at our school.
> 
> The disc I have/d with Windows 1.03 is a special version for the Nimbus,
> though it may be a network-installable version.

Yeah I believe so, I do have a set of Windows 1.03 disks, though I 
believe that 2.x and 3.0 where also available, would like to get a set 
of Nimbus Win 3.0 disks at some point.

> They had Z-Net, a coaxial LAN a bit like ethernet (used the 8530 SCC I
> think).  There was also piconet, another serial network using the other half
> of the 8530 for connecting peripherals (like data loggers).  There were some
> Z80 peripherals onboard (Z80 SIO?), presumably due to their previous Z80
> machines.

Yep defo has a Z80 SIO on the motherboard I was looking at erlier, plus 
a couple of ASICs, plus a couple of microcontrolers.

> There was an internal expansion bus connected by ribbon cable - mine had a
> 6522 parallel port and a uPD7210 analogue port so it could pretend to be a
> BBC (with the drivers on my page they could be used in BBC BASIC).  The
> floppy controller was also on this bus... it was a slightly unusual chip but
> I can't remember which.

Western digital WD2793, which is basically compatible with the previous 
WD1793, but has the data seperator built into the chip which makes it 
much easier to work with. It's also almost compatible with the 1770 on 
the command / register acce3ss level.

> The manual refers to Microsoft Networks as the OS for running networked
> machines.  I think this was some version of DOS, but I've never found it
> (and this was a decade before MSN the online service).

Would probably have been some early version of MS lanman.

> I also had an RM 386 PC... bog standard 386SX16 clone, but with a magic
> string in the BIOS so RM's BBC BASIC would work (I suspect this was easily
> hacked).  I once got Linux, X and Netscape 3 running on this in 4MB of RAM. 
> It wasn't fast :)

Humm I have an RM 386sx also, and it's different in being one of the 
only non-IBM MCA based machines, runs DOS/windows 3.x fine though, not 
tried it withe RM BBC basic.

Cheers.

Phill.

-- 
Phill Harvey-Smith, Programmer, Hardware hacker, and general eccentric !

"You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge" -- Rush.