Fact Sheet for SemiDisk DT42 Computer System The Deep Thought 42 single board computer from Semidisk Systems is the best CP/M-compatible computer ever designed. This may sound like just another grandiose advertising claim, but look at these features: Hardware The DT42 is a single board computer, sized 5.75" by 8", and uses only +5V at 1 amp with a complete complement of chips. - 9.216 MHz Hitachi HD64180 cpu gives you computational throughput beyond that of a 12 MHz Z80 machine. And, unlike some other 9MHz 64180 designs on the market, this machine has no RAM wait states to slow you down (one RAM wait state slows most other designs by 30%). 12.288 MHz will also be supported when faster 64180 chips are available - this is better than a 16MHz Z80! - The board comes with a floppy drive interface design that supports 4 5.25" 48tpi or 96tpi AND 4 8" single or double sided floppy disk drives simultaneously. Eight floppies at once! Additionally, the 1.2Mb 5.25" floppy drive models (such as those used in the PC-AT) are also supported. - 512Kb RAM is standard, with 428k available as RAMdisk. An optional disk emulator expansion card adds 8Mb of ultra-fast storage, with optional battery back-up. The awesome processing speed of the DT42 combined with this large amount of RAMdisk will make you wonder what all the fuss regarding hard disks is about! - If you want a hard disk, the DT42 supports this also. An included on-board SASI port interfaces directly to popular hard disk controllers made by Adaptec and Xebec to give you megabytes of hard disk storage. - Communications facilities include 4 on-board serial ports and a parallel output port. Two of the serial ports can accommodate speeds in excess of 300k bps; and the DT42 overcomes a shortcoming of 9MHz 64180 designs and allows you to run serial ports at 38,400 baud. One of the serial ports connects to an optional on-board video display manager and keyboard controller, so no separate RS-232 terminal is required (although one can be used if desired with no software changes). - Optional Dallas Semiconductor "Smartwatch" real time clock/calendar chip, and additional EPROM sockets are available. Software - A special version of the advanced Z-System disk operating system is available with the DT42. This includes ZCPR 3.3 and ZRDOS 2.0 and over 90 utility programs. This version of Z-System (called the "Hyperspace Z-System") places ZRDOS outside of the 64k TPA space. Z-System is modern software technology, packs an incredible amount of power and features, and will give you tremendous flexibility and convenience compared to CP/M or MSDOS. - The BIOS of the DT42 supports the large amounts of RAMdisk, hard disk, and floppy drives available. Communications channels are interrupt-driven; CP/M-compatible logical devices such as LST: and CON: are easily redirected; and the majority of the BIOS resides outside of the 64k TPA space. - Because of the advanced characteristics of the Hyperspace Z-System and the BIOS, CP/M-compatible application programs see 57.5k bytes free memory, even with a full featured (5k overhead) ZCPR3 implementation including IOP and RCP support. - Very powerful BIOS-resident disk handling software supports eight different floppy disk formats without any special conversion software. You can directly read, write, and copy between formats such as Kaypro, Osborne, 8" single density, etc. - Utility programs written for the DT42 include FVC, CONFIG, and HDFORMAT. FVC allows you to format, verify, and track-to- track copy the different floppy disk formats; CONFIG allows you to customize elements of the system software such as reassigning logical disks (eg, any physical device such as the RAMdisk could be set as drive A:, drive B:, etc.), setting communications ports parameters like baud rate etc.; HDFORMAT is a very flexible SASI/SCSI command editor that allows you to communicate with a SASI/SCSI device attached to the DT42. - The EPROM-resident DT42 Monitor allows you to examine and modify memory within the full 512k; auto-boots the Z-System (if available) when the hardware is reset; and contains important debugging-style commands for setting breakpoints, tracing program execution, and uploading code. You can switch between the Monitor and Z-System at any time. No other computer ever made possesses the raw power and features of the DT42. This machine is blindingly fast, and the Hyperspace Z-System represents a significant and positive new development in CP/M-compatible computing. Combined with standard CP/M- compatible applications such as the forthcoming WordStar 4.0 or dBase II, Multiplan, Turbo Pascal, Turbo Modula-2, etc., this machine will provide for your computing needs for years to come. To find out more about the DT42, please call or write SemiDisk: SemiDisk Systems, Inc. 11080 SW Allen Blvd. Beaverton, Oregon 97005 USA (503) 626-3104 Trademarks: DT42: SemiDisk; HD64180: Hitachi; Z80: Zilog; PC-AT: IBM; Smartwatch: Dallas Semiconductor; Z-System, Hyperspace Z- System, ZCPR3, ZCPR 3.3, ZRDOS, Turbo Modula-2: Echelon; MSDOS, Multiplan: Microsoft; WordStar: Micropro; dBase II: CP/M: Digital Research; Ashton-Tate; Turbo Pascal: Borland International.