When the //c came out it was unable to run CP/M. So… we started a company and developed a box called the Applix Plus80 that was basically an external box with Z80 and 64k of RAM and two serial ports. One serial port plugged into the //c, the other to your printer.
When the box powered up it was in printer buffer mode, but when you booted CP/M it actually ran CP/M on the box and used the //c basically as a terminal and for disk I/O. All this was possible because the serial chip in the //c could run in this weird x10 mode, so 192k baud which was actually quick enough for decent disk I/O.
Applix the company went on to do ‘great’ things, but the Plus80 started it all!
Great article. Thanks
When the //c came out it was unable to run CP/M. So… we started a company and developed a box called the Applix Plus80 that was basically an external box with Z80 and 64k of RAM and two serial ports. One serial port plugged into the //c, the other to your printer.
When the box powered up it was in printer buffer mode, but when you booted CP/M it actually ran CP/M on the box and used the //c basically as a terminal and for disk I/O. All this was possible because the serial chip in the //c could run in this weird x10 mode, so 192k baud which was actually quick enough for decent disk I/O.
Applix the company went on to do ‘great’ things, but the Plus80 started it all!
I grew up with the Apple IIe! It was our family computer and also a common computer in some of the old school computer labs. Thanks for sharing!