Subj : Re: Halt and Catch Fire
To   : poindexter FORTRAN
From : Moondog
Date : Tue May 03 2022 23:49:00

  Re: Re: Halt and Catch Fire
  By: poindexter FORTRAN to Moondog on Tue May 03 2022 08:25 am

 > -=> Moondog wrote to Kaelon <=-
 > 
 >  Mo> I read about a computer that was used mainly in classrooms in Russia,
 >  Mo> and it's name was the Russian word for Apple.  Collectors have
 >  Mo> confirmed they were pirated Apple clones with Wozniak's notations left
 >  Mo> in the BIOS.
 > 
 > Compaq reverse engineered the PC BIOS much in the way they described in
 > HACF, although with some theatrical license on the show. I always thought
 > that Cardiff was supposed to be Compaq, seeing as they were both in Texas
 > and both battling IBM in the marketplace.
 > 
 > Compaq didn't come from a mainframe background, though.
 > 
 > 
 > ... "The swift blade penetrates the salad."

I used to work for Zenith Data Systems from 1990-1996.  Zenith Electronics Cor
p bought the comp[uter division of Heathkit around 1979 and named them ZDS. 
Heathkit was a company that  produced educational materials and DIY kits. 
In the early days you could buy an airplane kit, a go kart , or motor bike,
buit later on they centered the business on consumer electrnics DIY kits. 
You could buy a stereo receiver or a TV set, ham radio, for examples, and
even sold  test equipment and diagnostic tools either assembled or in a kit.

In the 70's they branched kits teaching about micro controllers and cpus. 
You could buy a kit with a keypad and led display, and enter in code line
perline and execute it.  Abreadboard on the trainer allowed you to interface
the trainer with self made circuits.  They produced a system called the H8 which
was a competitor for the Altair and IMSAI S-100 bus systems.  Intead of rows
of led's and toggle swtiches, they opted for using an octal keypad and 8
segment numeric led displays.  This eveolved into the H89, which was an H19
terminal integrated with the H8.  IIRC Hacf used Zenith 89's (the re-branded
H89) to fill the role of H19 terminals because the prop house had enough.

Anyways, they also shared similar beginnings as Cardiff.  Cardiff also had  a
 bit of Texas Instruments in their DNA.

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