Epson QX-16

Owner: T. Stepleton
Location: St. Louis, MO
I love these hybrid machines. Anyone who watched Triumph of the Nerds on PBS saw how Digital Research basically threw away the chance to have CP/M be the operating system for the IBM PC. Here's the owner's description:
In the uneasy times between CP/M and DOS, there were several machines meant for those wanting the best of both worlds. This was one of them. In 1984/5, the Epson QX-16 featured both a Z80 and an 8088, 512k of RAM, and built-in CGA video for a green-screen monitor whose phosphor glowed long after the power was off. It had a keyboard modeled after the Televideo 920 terminal and supported identical screen control codes. The keyboard is also easily the most intuitive I've ever used; it has keys with labels such as "Bold", "Mail", "Print", not to mention the big red "Stop" on the left. It also came with an Epson FX-85 printer and an extremely clicky Logitech mouse, not to mention gobs of software and even an honors thesis (previous owner was a med student).

Runs CP/M-80 2.2.

Other Z80 / 8086 hybrids include the DEC Rainbow.

Send comments to tcarlson@ncsc.dni.us!
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