encrypted wallet backup to SDdisk

[Jet Cash]

Apologies re the number of the disk that I worked on. The smaller one was a 2311, and there was a larger faster one that followed it with double the number of platters -nthis was a 2314. Both of these were washing machine sized, and had exchangeasble platters. The devolopment work on hard drives for micro-computers was done in the IBM Hursley laboratories, and this were often referred to as IBM winchester, as were the drives.

The Xerox comment was based on a discussion with a retired Xerox executive, who was involved with the search for an addition to the Hovis bread business, and this led to the purchase of Xerox. The expansion was needed to fund Lord Rank's obsession with the film industry, and the film stars of the time. The Rank film organision required a fair amoiunt of cash to sustain I believe. Certainly Digital Research seemed to be the preferred choice for IBM, and the fledgling Microsoft was only chosen after they had reputedly turned down IBM. DR-DOS/CP/M was the OS standard for 8080 and 8085 based machines, and was loaded via 5 1/4 inch floppy disks which had replaced the old 8 inch disks.

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[Jet Cash]

Apologies re: Xerox. I've been trying to find references to the Xerox OS, and it looks as if the Xerox 820 (which was the micro-computer of the time) used CP/M. I've lost touch with the retired Xerox guy, so I may not be able to get him to clarify the situation. There are a lot of stories about the industry at that time. There is even one that attributes DR's loss of the IBM contract to a bad case of halitosis by one of the DR execs, that seems unlikely to me. I believe it was Rank's influence that caused Xerox to drop their micro-computer business though, and they may have sold elements of this to other companies.

[deepceleron]

Well, if it refreshes your memory, the original IBM 5150 PC originally had three OS choices, of course the sales of the non-MS-DOS OSs were something like less than 500 units.

August 12, 1981 press sheet:

System Software

BASIC Interpreter -- Based on the popular Microsoft Basic and offered in three versions -- cassette, diskette and advanced.

The cassette level is included in the read-only memory of every system and provides input/output instructions needed to enter and retrieve data. It also supports use of the keyboard, display, light pen and printer and provides a full complement of editing and mathematical functions.

The diskette and advanced levels are optional. The diskette extension supports the use of diskettes, while adding date, time of day and communications capabilities to the system. The advanced extension enhances the display graphics to include features such as point, circle and get/put display, while increasing light pen and joy stick support for design work and home entertainment.

Disk Operating System (DOS) -- DOS supports one or more diskette drives, allowing the user to write or read from the system's removable diskettes, display a directory and rename, erase, display or copy files.

Pascal Compiler -- This language compiler allows separate compilations of program elements for maximum system performance. In addition, it supports several programming features for advanced programming work.

CP/M-86* and UCSD p-System* -- IBM has contracted with Digital Research, Inc. and Sof- Tech Microsystems, Inc. to make CP/M-86 and the UCSD p-System available for the IBM Personal Computer. We expect their availability will provide the opportunity for many current applications to be transferred to the IBM Personal Computer with minimal modifications.

I owned one of these, and ran a NAT router on it before 99% percent of the population had heard of the internet and before most TCP/IP people knew what NAT was. Didn't get it new for $2000 though, more like $5 at a university surplus auction.