“Draft:West PC-800”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

West PC-800 was an Apple II clone built by West Computer AS in Norway – started and invented by Tov Westby. And released Autumn 1984 at the Sjølyst "Home and Hobby" fair^[1]. It was markedet^[2] as a 4 in 1 computer: Apple II, CP/M, Alarm and Datamodem/number transmitter. It had four 4 microprocessors: 6502, Z80, 8400 and 8035. When reviewed in the Norwegian magazine in 1985 it got good reviews^[3]^[4].

The machine was built on a Apple II clone motherboard. If compared with the original Apple II motherboard we can only detect a few modification. One of them is the on-board Z80 CPU for running CP/M. Connections like keyboard, joystick, video and datasette is the same as the original. Even the modification to change the NTSC/PAL mode is done the same way. The machine came with two extra ROM's, a PAL RF Card and a alarm/modem card. On the back-plane of the computer was a circuit board with external connectors. In the front was a circuit board with LED's for the alarm central status, power and CPU mode.

The machine had two power switches. The main switch in the back gave power to the computer, but also independent power to the alarm/modem card. This way the alarm would work regardless of the computer was turned on or not. You need an external alarm box to actually connect any alarm sensors. The front power switch turn on the computer i Apple II mode. The prompt stated "West PC" - very much the same way as the Apple II would greet you with "Apple II".

The machine is said to be 100% compatible with the Apple II. One can indeed use the same cards or even the Apple II keyboard on this machine.

The extra ROMS gave several useful built-in software: A system monitor, the alarm software and a terminal program for modem/dial-up. It also had built in BASIC - just like the Apple II.

When sold ^[5]it came standard with West DOS (Clone of the Apple II DOS), CP/M, WestText and three games. It was upgrade-able with two (200KB) floppy drives in an external cabinet that fitted neatly under the machine. You could also buy an alarm package. It was in 1985 priced at NOK 9998,-^[6]. This later dropped to 500,-

You could attach a Joystick to the DB9 port on the front. The Joysticks was the same type as the Apple II computers would use, but with an adapter to fit the joystick plug.

The keyboard for the West PC-800 was nothing like the Apple II keyboard. First of all it used a Wireless IR (infrared) connection AND a serial cable (DB9) connection. This was done by translating the parallel keyboard interface to a serial signal by the use of a [https://datasheetspdf.com/datasheet/AY-3-1015.html AY3-1015] UART. The serial signal was then used on both the IR and the DB9 connection in the front. The keyboard was retrofitted with an IR interface and given a 10,5v battery package. Pin 6 on the DB9 supplied the keyboard with power when it was connected. When disconnected the IR would automatically take over. The keyboard was much improved over the Apple II keyboard. And had 13 special keys for e.x. entering the built-in-ROM machine code monitor or the alarm/terminal software.

Hardware details.

External Links

References

1. ^{{Cite news|url=https://www.rbnett.no/nyheter/2018/11/24/Datarevolusjon-i-Molde-17939640.ece|title=Datarevolusjon i Molde|last=|first=|date=20 November 2018|work=rbnett.no|access-date=}}
2. ^{{Cite web|url=https://web.min-sky.no/share/acd57257-ab58-4385-a497-b43c772abe33#sc|title=Capture Web|website=web.min-sky.no|access-date=2019-03-31}}
3. ^{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=Winter 1985|title=Hjemmedata nr. 3-1985|url=http://www.stone-oakvalley-studios.com/uploads/02a99469/hjemmedata_03-1985.pdf|journal=Hjemmedata|volume=3|pages=66|via=}}
4. ^{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=Winter 1985|title=Mikrodata no. 3-1985|url=http://www.stone-oakvalley-studios.com/uploads/0144cd41/mikrodata_03-1985.pdf|journal=Mikrodata|volume=3-1985|pages=64|via=}}
5. ^{{Cite web|url=https://web.min-sky.no/share/5201dbdc-f4ad-454d-9d68-2ec89cb3cdad#sc|title=Capture Web|website=web.min-sky.no|access-date=2019-03-31}}
6. ^{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=Autumn 1985|title=Frithjof Arngren Katalog 1996|url=http://www.stone-oakvalley-studios.com/uploads/0041fb71/hjemmedata_09-1985_frithjof_arngren_katalog.pdf|journal=Frithjof Arngren Katalog 1996|volume=9|pages=116|via=}}