Not surprising given that they had a whole "division" devoted to memory products. Core memory would have been reasonably close to their magnetic tape-expertise. What is surprising is that they apparently sold a DG-compatible Nova-class CPU. Something like the Digidyne "D.D. 112" (name found mentioned in one legal filing in the DG lawsuit).
I can't find anything specific about any of those vendors and their products. List appears in "Fairchild Joins Four Others: Firm Starts $30 Million Suit Against DG", Computerworld, Nov. 6 1978. -----Original Message----- From: Bill Degnan via cctalk <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, December 5, 2023 8:55 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <[email protected]> Cc: Bill Degnan <[email protected]> Subject: [cctalk] Re: Ampex and the DG Compatible Market I can't at the moment, but I bet if one were to review a random assortment of CompuerWorld newspapers or industry magazine from the 70's (not Byte or a PC/retail) you'd see a lot of RAM vendor ads, Ampex included. I have at least one Ampex core RAM board, I always thought they were among market share leaders of minicomputer RAM in the 70's. Bill On Tue, Dec 5, 2023 at 7:49 AM Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote: > Around 1979 I was given a full-size Ampex 4k DG-compatible core memory > board to try and interface to a MC6800 development system that I was > building. IIRC I got it basically working but abandoned the project as > the price of DRAMs fell and could populate a 16k RAM board within my > budget. It was for a ham radio repeater controller. > > Wow! I had almost forgotten that, and it was difficult to drag it > from the little grey cells! > > cheers, > > Nigel > > > On 2023-12-05 06:07, Paul Birkel via cctalk wrote: > > Although I knew that Ampex was a supplier of Multibus non-volatile > > RAM boards (MC-8080 and MCM-8086) - Memory Products Division - I > > didn't realize that they had competed for a while in the > > DG-compatible market alongside companies like Digidyne, Fairchild, > > Bytronix, and SCI Systems (according to court documents and the > > trade press). > > > > > > > > Can anyone shed light on what they offered and when? And perhaps why? > > > > > > > > Thank you, > > > > paul > > > -- > Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the > origin of the open-source concept! > Skype: TILBURY2591 > >
