Dual Floppy Drives in Single Case

What's New

Byte Magazine

December 1983

Digital Equipment Corporation asserts that its Rainbow 100+ is the first machine from a major vendor to offer 256k-bit memory technology. The 100+ is also said to be the first computer to carry a Winchester hard-disk and twin floppy-disk drives in a single enclosure.

Employing both the 8-bit Z80A and the 16-bit 8088 microprocessors, the Rainbow 100+ comes with 10 megabytes of Winchester storage, 800K bytes of dual floppy-disk storage, serial synchronous and asynchronous communications, memory-mapped video, full international character support, built-in terminal emulator, and a serial RS-232C/RS-423 printer port. Its 128K bytes of RAM is expandable up to 896K bytes. Diagnostics and a computer-based instruction course are supplied. The basic Rainbow 100+ costs $5475, including documentation. An operating-system kit that includes CP/M-86/80 version 2.0 and MS-DOS version 2.05 can be purchased for $250.

Digital offers a choice of white, green, or amber monochrome display monitors. Each 12-inch monitor offers 80- or 120- column displays, bitmapped graphics, and high-definition characters. The monitors cost $325.

For entering data, Digital markets a low-profile keyboard for $245. Featuring a sculptured key array, the 105-key keyboard is divided into four areas: traditional typing, editing, numeric, and special function.

Options include RAM memory extensions, high-resolution graphics, complete technical documentation, and a line of printers. Digital Equipment Corporation maintains its corporate headquarters in Maynard, MA 01754.