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DECmate


DECmate was the name of a series of PDP-8-compatible computers produced by the Digital Equipment Corporation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. All of the models used an Intersil 6100 (later known as the Harris 6100) or Harris 6120 (an improved Intersil 6100) microprocessor which emulated the 12-bit DEC PDP-8 CPU. They were text-only and used the OS/78 or OS/278 operating systems, which were extensions of OS/8 for the PDP-8. Aimed for the word processing market, they typically ran the WPS-8 word-processing program. Later models optionally had Intel 8080 or Z80 microprocessors which allowed them to run CP/M. The range was a development of the VT78 which was introduced in July 1977.

Introduced in July 1977, this machine was built into a VT52 case and had an Intersil 6100 microprocessor running at 2.2 MHz. The standard configuration included an RX02 dual 8-inch floppy disk unit which was housed in the pedestal the computer rested on.

Introduced in 1980, this machine was built into a VT100 case. It had a 10 MHz clock and 32 Kwords of memory. It was also known as the VT278.

As part of a three-pronged strategy against IBM, the company released this model at the same time as the PDP-11-based PRO-380 and the Intel 8088-based Rainbow 100. The DECmate II resembles the Rainbow 100 but uses the 6120 processor. Its two operating systems are the WPS-8 word processing system, and the COS-310 Commercial Operating System running DIBOL. Like the others it had a monochrome VR201 (VT220-style) monitor, an LK201 keyboard and dual 400K single-sided quad-density 5.25 inch RX50 floppy disk drives. It had 32 Kwords of RAM for use by programs, and a further 32 Kwords containing code which was used for device emulation. Code running in this second bank was nicknamed "slushware", in contrast to firmware since it was loaded from floppy disk as the machine booted. It was also known as the PC278.


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