Gigi was a follow-on to the VT125, which introduced ReGIS. Gigi was sold - and used - primarily as a graphics terminal, though it does have a BASIC interpreter. It was used on the DECSYSTEM-20 and VAX. There was some software support; Scribe had a driver for it.
I don't recall any BASIC software sold for GiGi - which would be difficult, since GiGi has no mass storage - just two RS232 ports; one for host comm and one for either a LA34 printer or tablet. with 16KB of (D)RAM (plus screen memory) and 28K of ROM, there really wasn't much you could do with it beyond its intended use as a terminal. It was thought that the EDU market might find a use for BASIC; but it wasn't much of a thought. CPU is an 8085 - less capable than the Z80, and not capable of running any general purpose software - no CP/M, MS/DOS, or anything other than the internal BASIC interpreter. Someone sufficiently motivated might have driven one of the audio cassette drives popular at the time (typically modem style FSK) off a serial port. But you'd have had to be very motivated. GiGi wasn't priced for the hobbyist. I don't believe it predates the Robin - it was in 1982 (quite the year for DEC PCish devices). Again, I wouldn't classify it as a general purpose micro due to the inability to load/save a program & the lack of software. On 20-Jul-17 12:17, Johnny Billquist wrote: > Timothe gives a lot of good info here. > > In addition, you also have the DEC GIGI, which I believe predates the > Robin, and which I think also definitely would be classified as a > "micro". > > Johnny > > On 2017-07-20 18:06, Timothe Litt wrote: >> On 19-Jul-17 23:23, Bill Cunningham wrote: >>> There's no simulator for DEC's first micro is there? Will there >>> ever be one? >>> >>> Bill >>> >>> >> That wouldn't be the Rainbow. >> >> There was the Harris/Intersil pdp-8 on a chip c.a 1975. >> >> The DEC/WD LSI11 c.a. 1976 followed. >> >> All these were in embedded systems. The LSI-11 (and especially its >> follow-ons, the T/F/J11) were used in a number of DEC's storage and >> communications controllers, until ultimately replaced by VAXes. (Yes, >> your VAX probably had more VAXes in the IO subsystem than you knew >> about.) They were also very popular for third party embedded systems - >> from volume copiers to airport landing lights. >> >> If by 'micro', you mean general purpose consumer packaged Intel >> architecture machine, that would be the Robin (VT180), which is a Z80 >> CPU with dual 5 1/4 inch floppies, as a plugin board for the VT100. >> CP/M. Produced in the AD group, which Bob Glorioso managed at the >> time. Released c.a. 1982. The board had its origin as a model railroad >> controller created as a hobby project by an engineer in that group, and >> was brought in and adapted for the VT180 as a quick time-to-market >> product. (I subsequently subsequently re-adapted the board for >> something completely different - and learned the history a few years >> later.) >> >> The VT103 used the same idea, but with an LSI-11 backplane and T11 - >> TU58 tapes & RT11. But it was later, and not on the IA path. >> >> The Rainbow was the replacement for the VT180 (c.a. late 82/early 83), >> used RX50 diskettes and optionally, a st506 winchester drive. It was >> part of the triplet of machines, which also included the Pro 350 (pdp11) >> and DECmate (PDP-8), that Ken Olsen pushed as the answer to the "cheap, >> poorly engineered" IBM PC. Besides being over-designed for the market, >> all three suffered from being closed systems with hardware architectures >> different enough from the standards (IBM PC/QBus/Omibus) to disable >> commodity software. Especially the Pro350, with its lobotomized P/OS >> operating system (RSX with a horrible GUI) and limited menu of >> application software. (Eventually, RT was released, but too little, to >> late.) The DECmate never pretended to be anything other than a word >> processor. Ken's belief that quality would overcome price in this >> market turned out to be very wrong. And locking out existing software >> made them niche products. >> >> Both the Rainbow and Pro got minor upgrades, then died. The DECmate was >> the most successful of the three in that it did exactly what it set out >> to do; no more and no less. It got larger winchester drives and some >> minor software updates, but basically kept chugging along until >> technology - Apple, WordPerfect (and eventually Word) - provided >> bitmapped fonts. (But lost the gold-key UI in favor of the mouse...) >> >> I don't think there was any real volume for the PC devices until the >> DECstation IBM PC compatibles came along, which IIRC were >> undistinguished Tandy buy-outs. >> >> And yes, the Z80 is a superset of the the Intel 8080, so perhaps you can >> argue that it's not strictly IA. But the Rainbow included one (you >> could run CP/M on it, and it served as an I/O controller for the 8088). >> And in any case, the VT180 fit the common definition of "micro" at >> the time. >> >> In any case, by no definition was the Rainbow "DEC's first micro". >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Simh mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh >> >
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