Date   : Mon, 22 Oct 1990 20:17:38 GMT
From   : mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu!trice@purdue.edu (Phil Trice)
Subject: Need info for an S-100 bus system

>In article <6565@vanuata.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack
Campin) writes:
>>
>>Cromemco had an OS called Cromix that was meant to be vaguely Unix-like.
>>I've seen it running and it seemed to work.  Needed extra memory and CPU
>>boards above the bare S-100 minimum, I think.
>>
>Cromix requires Cromemco's dual CPU card, and the OS itself runs on the

       This is true *only* for the 68K Cromix. They also sold a Z80
Cromix that one could run on a System 2 with several additional
banks of memory. As one might imagine, the Z80 version was, even on
a good day, a *dog*. I think the OS stabilized at aroung release 30.

>68000 CPU only.  You could run multiple CDOS sessions time-sliced on the

       The 68K version also supported a CDOS simulator. This made
things fairly nice, since one could execute programs without regard
to what CPU (680[00,01,02] or Z80) or OS (CROMIX or CDOS)  they were
intended for. The loader would figure things out, and fire up the
appropriate CPU.

>del AKA Erik Lindberg                             uunet!pilchuck!fnx!del


All told, the Cromemcos were *not* bad products. From the start (and
they *were* at the forefront with the S-100 bus), the products were
well-engineered, and pretty solid. Save for a few incorrect
marketing decisions, they might have been a major player yet.

               -Phil Trice
               Purdue University Computing Center
               Microcomputer Repair Group
               Enad 135C
               West Lafayette, IN 47907
               (317) 494-1787
               ahp@mace.cc.purdue.edu