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- Fact Sheet for SemiDisk DT42 Computer System
-
- The Deep Thought 42 single board computer from Semidisk Systems
- is the best CP/M-compatible computer ever designed. This may
- sound like just another grandiose advertising claim, but look at
- these features:
-
- Hardware
-
- The DT42 is a single board computer, sized 5.75" by 8", and uses
- only +5V at 1 amp with a complete complement of chips.
-
- - 9.216 MHz Hitachi HD64180 cpu gives you computational
- throughput beyond that of a 12 MHz Z80 machine. And, unlike some
- other 9MHz 64180 designs on the market, this machine has no RAM
- wait states to slow you down (one RAM wait state slows most other
- designs by 30%). 12.288 MHz will also be supported when faster
- 64180 chips are available - this is better than a 16MHz Z80!
-
- - The board comes with a floppy drive interface design that
- supports 4 5.25" 48tpi or 96tpi AND 4 8" single or double sided
- floppy disk drives simultaneously. Eight floppies at once!
- Additionally, the 1.2Mb 5.25" floppy drive models (such as those
- used in the PC-AT) are also supported.
-
- - 512Kb RAM is standard, with 428k available as RAMdisk. An
- optional disk emulator expansion card adds 8Mb of ultra-fast
- storage, with optional battery back-up. The awesome processing
- speed of the DT42 combined with this large amount of RAMdisk will
- make you wonder what all the fuss regarding hard disks is about!
-
- - If you want a hard disk, the DT42 supports this also. An
- included on-board SASI port interfaces directly to popular hard
- disk controllers made by Adaptec and Xebec to give you megabytes
- of hard disk storage.
-
- - Communications facilities include 4 on-board serial ports
- and a parallel output port. Two of the serial ports can
- accommodate speeds in excess of 300k bps; and the DT42 overcomes
- a shortcoming of 9MHz 64180 designs and allows you to run serial
- ports at 38,400 baud. One of the serial ports connects to an
- optional on-board video display manager and keyboard controller,
- so no separate RS-232 terminal is required (although one can be
- used if desired with no software changes).
-
- - Optional Dallas Semiconductor "Smartwatch" real time
- clock/calendar chip, and additional EPROM sockets are available.
-
- Software
-
- - A special version of the advanced Z-System disk operating
- system is available with the DT42. This includes ZCPR 3.3 and
- ZRDOS 2.0 and over 90 utility programs. This version of Z-System
- (called the "Hyperspace Z-System") places ZRDOS outside of the
- 64k TPA space. Z-System is modern software technology, packs an
- incredible amount of power and features, and will give you
- tremendous flexibility and convenience compared to CP/M or MSDOS.
-
- - The BIOS of the DT42 supports the large amounts of
- RAMdisk, hard disk, and floppy drives available. Communications
- channels are interrupt-driven; CP/M-compatible logical devices
- such as LST: and CON: are easily redirected; and the majority of
- the BIOS resides outside of the 64k TPA space.
-
- - Because of the advanced characteristics of the Hyperspace
- Z-System and the BIOS, CP/M-compatible application programs see
- 57.5k bytes free memory, even with a full featured (5k overhead)
- ZCPR3 implementation including IOP and RCP support.
-
- - Very powerful BIOS-resident disk handling software
- supports eight different floppy disk formats without any special
- conversion software. You can directly read, write, and copy
- between formats such as Kaypro, Osborne, 8" single density, etc.
-
- - Utility programs written for the DT42 include FVC, CONFIG,
- and HDFORMAT. FVC allows you to format, verify, and track-to-
- track copy the different floppy disk formats; CONFIG allows you
- to customize elements of the system software such as reassigning
- logical disks (eg, any physical device such as the RAMdisk could
- be set as drive A:, drive B:, etc.), setting communications ports
- parameters like baud rate etc.; HDFORMAT is a very flexible
- SASI/SCSI command editor that allows you to communicate with a
- SASI/SCSI device attached to the DT42.
-
- - The EPROM-resident DT42 Monitor allows you to examine and
- modify memory within the full 512k; auto-boots the Z-System (if
- available) when the hardware is reset; and contains important
- debugging-style commands for setting breakpoints, tracing program
- execution, and uploading code. You can switch between the
- Monitor and Z-System at any time.
-
- No other computer ever made possesses the raw power and features
- of the DT42. This machine is blindingly fast, and the Hyperspace
- Z-System represents a significant and positive new development in
- CP/M-compatible computing. Combined with standard CP/M-
- compatible applications such as the forthcoming WordStar 4.0 or
- dBase II, Multiplan, Turbo Pascal, Turbo Modula-2, etc., this
- machine will provide for your computing needs for years to come.
-
- To find out more about the DT42, please call or write SemiDisk:
-
- SemiDisk Systems, Inc.
- 11080 SW Allen Blvd.
- Beaverton, Oregon 97005 USA
- (503) 626-3104
-
- Trademarks: DT42: SemiDisk; HD64180: Hitachi; Z80: Zilog; PC-AT:
- IBM; Smartwatch: Dallas Semiconductor; Z-System, Hyperspace Z-
- System, ZCPR3, ZCPR 3.3, ZRDOS, Turbo Modula-2: Echelon; MSDOS,
- Multiplan: Microsoft; WordStar: Micropro; dBase II: CP/M: Digital
- Research; Ashton-Tate; Turbo Pascal: Borland International.