Microcomputers are extremely good value. The outright purchase price of a 380Z installation with dual mini floppy disk drives, digital I/O and a real-time clock, is about the same as the annual maintenance cost of a typical laboratory minicomputer. It is worth thinking about!
The RESEARCH MACHINES 380Z is an excellent microcomputer for on-line data logging and control. In university departments in general, it is also a very attractive alternative to a central mainframe. Having your own 380Z means an end to fighting the central operating system, immediate feedback of program bugs, no more queuing and a virtually unlimited computing budget. You can program in interactive BASIC or, using our unique Text Editor, run very large programs with a 380Z FORTRAN Compiler. If you already have a minicomputer, you can use your 380Z with a floppy disk system for data capture.
What about Schools and Colleges? You can purchase a 380Z for your Computer Science or Computer Studies department at about the same cost as a terminal. A 380Z has a performance equal to many microcomputers and is ideal for teaching BASIC and Cesil. For A Level machine language instruction, the 380Z has the best software front panel of any computer. This enables a teacher to single-step through programs and observe the effects on registers and memory, using a single keystroke.
WHAT OTHER FEATURES SET THE 380Z APART?
The 380Z with its professional keyboard is a robust,
hardwearing piece of equipment that will endure
continual handling for years. It has an integral VDU
interface – you only have to plug a black and white
television into the system in order to provide a display
unit – you do not need to buy a separate terminal.
The integral VDU interface gives you upper and lower
case characters and low resolution graphics. Text and
graphics can be mixed anywhere on the screen. The
380Z has an integral cassette interface, software and
hardware, which uses named cassette files for both program
and data storage. This means that it is easy to store
more than one program per cassette.
Owners of a 380Z microcomputer can upgrade their system to include a floppy (standard or mini) disk storage and take full advantage of a unique occurence in the history of computing – the CP/M™* industry standard disk operating system. The 380Z uses an 8080 family microprocessor – the Z80 – and this has enabled us to use CP/M. This means that the 380Z user has access to a growing body of CP/M based software, supplied from many independent sources.
380Z mini floppy disk systems are available with the
drives mounted in the computer case itself, presenting
a compact and tidy installation. The FDS-2 standard
floppy disk system uses double-sided disk drives, providing
1 Megabyte of on-line storage.
*Trademark, Digital Research
Versions of BASIC are available with the 380Z which automatically provide controlled cassette data files, allow programs to be loaded from paper tape, mark sense card readers or from a mainframe. A disk BASIC is also available with serial and random access to disk files. Most BASICs are available in erasable ROM which will allow for periodic updating.
If you already have a teletype, the 380Z can use this for hard copy or for paper tape input. Alternatively, you can purchase a low cost 380Z compatible printer for under £300, or choose from a range of higher performance printers.