Date   : Sun, 23 Oct 1988 19:21:41 PDT
From   : secrist%msdsws.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (Richard Secrist, Digital Equip. Corp. USA)
Subject: About the NEC 8500

 >  From: mcvax!cernvax!ethz!solaris!wyle@uunet.uu.net  (Mitchell Wyle)
 >  Subject: NEC 8500
 >   
 >  How many characters wide is the LCD screen?

80 columns X 25 lines.

 >  How much RAM does it have?  

64K on board.  32K of this is TPA, 32K is a RAMdisk.  Outboard RAMdisks
are available as plug-in cartridges.

 >  Is there a RAM disk?  How big is it?

The internal RAMdisk is 32K.  If you plug in an outboard cartridge you
can have whatever is in that, typically 128K.  If you chose to run with
a 64K TPA (56K TPA) you have to use an external RAM cartridge as a RAMdisk
or use the real NEC disk drive.  The unit functions fully standalone in
the default 32K TPA / 32K RAMdisk configuration.

 >  How fast is the built-in modem?  

300 bps through the phone jack.  The built-in serial port will work
with a modem through 9600 bps.

 >  How fast/slow is the ROM disk?

RAMdisk.  Instantaneous.

 >  Which communications software is on the ROM disk?

Descent VT-100 (ANSI) terminal emulation with no keypad.  Line drawing
sequences, reverse video, no ident sequence.

Standard XMODEM (checksum only, 128-byte data packets).

 >  Can the comm. software  transfer binaries?  

Using the provided XMODEM.

 >  Which processor does it use?

A CMOS Z-80 compatible.


rcs