VT180
VT180 , codenamed "Robin" was a ASCII - computer terminal and microcomputer built by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the years 1982 bis 1983 . It was based on the VT100 -Terminal and included an additional board with Z80 - CPU and 64 kB RAM . He also had two or four external floppy disk drives for single-sided diskettes with 180 kB as well as three programmable serial interfaces for communication, printer and general needs. Thus it could be used either as a terminal or as a computer.
The computer ran under the operating system CP / M , version 2.2, and was therefore able to process the software that was widespread at the time (possibly after adaptation), for example WordStar , SuperCalc , MBASIC or dBASE .
With the end of the VT100 series, the VT180 model was also discontinued. A direct successor model for this computer did not come onto the market. In the meantime, more powerful computers based on the 16-bit Intel 8088 or Intel 8086 microprocessors were available. However, the DEC computer “ Rainbow 100 ” manufactured afterwards with Z80 and 8088 CPU contained most of the VT180 functionalities as a subset.
The VT180 / Robin diskette format could not only be processed by the Rainbow 100, but also by some other computer systems, such as the first portable computers Osborne 1 and Kaypro II or later also the IBM PC under the MS-DOS operating system with additional software.