====== Kaypro IIx (1982) ======
===== Usage =====
Requires full keyboard emulation. At startup, full keyboard emulation mode is enabled by default. Whilst in full keyboard emulation mode, some key associated functionality may be disabled (like the ESC key for EXIT). The keyboard emulation mode is toggled using the
scroll_lock key.
===== History and Trivia =====
Despite its name, the Kaypro II was the first Kaypro model. The name was KAYPRO II, because the Apple II was the most popular system (besides the IBM PC) around back then, and Kaypro decided to follow in the image.
It was conceived by Non Linear Systems inc., a company with over 30 years' experience of producing small portable aerospace electronic equipment, which would later become Kaypro. Non Linear Systems was indeed founded by Andy Kay in 1952 to make digital multimeters (Andy
Kay is the inventor of the digital multimeter).
Kaypro's computers were an extension of their test instrument design philosophy: rugged, reliable, reasonably priced, looking more like instruments than the creative, communications (and business) tools that they really are. All the hardware is packed into a solid aluminum case. These computers can resist to a lot of trouble as they proved when ten of them (Kaypro IV & 10) were used by doctors for the Paris-Dakar 84's edition. None of them failed despite extreme conditions.
The Kaypro II is a real "luggable" system. Even if it weights more than 10kg, it can be easily moved with the handle found at the back. Nonetheless, the Kaypro II is not the first portable full-size computer, that would be the Osborne 1, with its all-plastic case.
One asset of the Kaypro, over the Osborne 1 which was available at about the same time, is the 9" built-in monitor, easily twice the size of the tiny Osborne's 5" screen.
Though the Kaypro 2 has no graphic features, it can display 80 x 24 characters. There are two single-sided / double-density full-heigth 5.25" disk-drives (190k each). One can be used to boot CP/M and the other to run the software.
At the rear of the system, one can find a serial port, a parallel port, a keyboard connector, a brightness control knob and reset button.
Perfect Writer, Perfect Calc, Perfect Filer, Perfect Speller, S-Basic, CP/M and Profitplan were bundled with the system. Later WordStar was also available.
In 1983, they split-off the computer division, naming it Kaypro Computers. They were soon shipping 10,000 Kaypro II computers a month.
Over the next four years, they released the Kaypro 10, IV, 4, 2, 2X, Robie, 4X, 12X, 16, 2000, and Kaypro 1, in pretty much that order.
Most of their computers were based on the Z-80 microprocessor and ran the CP/M operating system up until 1986 or so. By that time, MS-DOS was taking over the world. Kaypro Computers made a few more systems, but couldn't compete. They filed for bankruptcy in 1990.
== Different models ==
As usual with Kaypro, the model names logic is quite dramatic to resolve. Several Kaypro "2" were marketed:
* In 1984 a new Kaypro 2 (refered as Kaypro 2'84) is introduced. It has two SS/DD half-height floppy drives, a Z-80A running at 4.0 MHz, 2 serial ports and rudimentary graphics (through graphic characters).
* The same year, the Kaypro 2X is released. Very similar to a Kaypro 2'84 but with DS/DD half-height drives.
* Still in 1984, in order to be compatible with IBM software, a special version was marketed with an Intel 8088 CPU instead of the Z80A. It was called the Kaypro II Plus 88!
* In 1985 another Kaypro 2 refered as "New 2" is sold. It is basically an old 2X motherboard, with one or two DS/DD floppy drives, but no 300 baud modem previously found on the 2X. It comes with just CP/M and Wordstar for software.
* And to spice up a bit things, Kaypro decides to rename its Kaypro 4'84 as Kaypro 2X (sometimes also known as 2X MTC), thus dropping the previous 2X model!
== Trivia ==
In 1985, Arthur C. Clarke published a sequel to 2001 : 2010 Odyssey Two. He worked with Peter Hyams in the movie version of 2010. Their work was done using a Kaypro computer and a modem, for Arthur was in Sri Lanka and Peter Hyams in Los Angeles. Their communications turned into the book The Odyssey File - The Making of 2010.
//(info based on old-computers.com)//
===== Links =====
* Kaypro II Project -- http://www.yoy.org/kaypro/Default.htm
* Kaypro II at old-computers.com -- http://old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=550
===== Other Emulators =====
* Kaypro II JAVA Emu -- http://www.yoy.org/kaypro/html/kayproii1.html
Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009