anyone familiar with the NEC 9800 series

[tipc]

in particular the 9801UF. Curious about the expansion bus. Similar or same as the APC 3 (or APC, but doubt that).

 

[Chuck(G)]

in particular the 9801UF. Curious about the expansion bus. Similar or same as the APC 3 (or APC, but doubt that).

I think the APC may be too early. The 9801 series uses something called "C-BUS" for peripherals. Unlike ISA, it's a closed spec, although there are some who have figured it out.

Here's a photo of a C-Bus GPIB card. Note the edge connector on the rear of the card. The nice feature of the C-bus cards is that you don't have to open up the blasted box to install them.

I just found the practicalmachinist thread. Someone needs to tell the guy (it's not me) that the PC98 series uses 360 RPM 1.23MB floppies with 1024 byte sectors (8 of them per track). Booting requires a special variant of MS-DOS called "DOS V". He can't put a copy of plain old MS-DOS into the PC98 and expect it to boot.

Tell him who to call if he needs a boot floppy.

Now, my turn--anyone have the internal specs for a Mitsubishi Multi-16?

 

[tipc]

you gotta be specific bro. The APC and APC III are 2 entirely different contraptions. The APC has a built in monitor and 8" drives (I have an aftermarket 5 1/4" set of drives, but not sure if I have the proper drivers. Was made by Butler Flats Associates). The III is a more or less vanilla looking pc box, but of course in almost totally incompatible (save for the addition of the Software Library Expander board, which I of course own (what a find that was!)). Yes the cards for the III are insertable from the outside. It's ruggedly made.
I need to go to the source to get this information. I'd really like to hike through Japan and see what I could find as far as vintage goodies go (like a Mitsubishi MyBrain. Dual 8086 and 68000 cpu IIRC).
Sorry can't help you w/your strangeoid. I'd be happy to give it a new home if you ever tire of it though LOL. Good luck with it.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Don't have the Mitsubishi box--and that's the problem. Customer has software that needs running, but without any documentation, it's pretty difficult figuring out what's what.

Since the Multi-16 was the first Japanese 16-bitter, it's quite a collector's item in Japan--and very hard to come by.