Date   : Sat, 01 Mar 1986 04:52:23 GMT
From   : Ross Alford <alford%ecsvax.uucp@BRL.ARPA>
Subject: NEC 8401 questions

I'm looking at laptops, and am curious about the NEC 8401.  I'd be
interested in hearing anything about this machine.  I also have 
several specific questions:

  1)  Is there an xmodem protocol file transfer program available for it?
  2)  Will CP/M save/load programs from cassette?  Is the cassette device a
      standard recorder, or is it necessary to buy one from NEC?
  3)  Is all of the ROM software accessible without any chip swapping (Portable
      WordStar, Calc, Filer, Telcom.)
  4)  If there IS an xmodem program available, how in the world do you 
      bootstrap it in for the first time, given that there's no built-in 
      programming language?  Is there a user's group that distributes things
      on cassette?

As a dedicated CP/M user, this machine has a lot of appeal, but there are
no dealers in the state of NC (according to NEC) so information is hard to
come by.

Thank you,
Ross Alford
  ...{decvax, akgua, ihnp4}!mcnc!ecsvax!alford