Radio Shack SSM-1750 User Manual download pdf (Page 62)

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PC PAPERS

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First

Impressions:

Epson and

AMQ

Compatibles,

Personal

Publisher

By Eric Grevstad

I don't think

I've reviewed a plain,

un-

abashed

PC clone since

the NCR

PC4 in

1984, back

when IBM compatibility

was

still uncommon

and

the reviewer's

tool -

kit consisted of

1 -2 -3 and Flight Simula-

tor.

Nowadays that acid -test

twosome

doesn't scare

anyone.

You

can

buy

PC-

compatible

BIOS (basic

input /output

system)

chips on

any street corner

in New

York -well,

maybe not

in

the

low -tech

neighborhoods on the

West

Side,

but you

know

what I mean -and

the industry's

moved on to

80286 processors,

micro -

floppy drives, and

Enhanced

Graphics

Adapters.

But

it's

good

to get back

to basics, to

see the old

8088 CPU percolating

along

at

its old

4.77 -MHz clock

rate. This

month's

micros are

from two companies

(a global

titan and a

near unknown)

in

two

categories (desktop

and

transport-

able), but

they have one

thing

in

com-

mon. Each costs

a third as

much as

the

IBM and Compaq

machines

I would

have

compared

them to

in 1984.

On the

other

hand, the old clock

can

seem

kind of

slow for today's

newest ap-

plications.

Did

someone

say

"desktop

publishing

"?

Read on, and

let's get on

with the reviews

... .

Epson's Compact

Cube

Setting

aside

the

mail -order specials,

there are three

brand -name

entries

in the

low

-cost desktop

race: the

Tandy 1000

(U.S.),

Leading Edge

D (Korea),

and Ep-

son's

Equity

I (Japan).

The Epson

is

the

most conventional

clone

of the

three.

It's

the

only one

that makes

novices buy

and

install a

video

board

-but

has some ap-

pealing

features.

For one thing,

it's only

$995

with

256K and one

disk drive

($1,295 with two

drives, $1,895

with one

floppy and

a 20- megabyte

hard disk).

The Equity

system

unit

is a trim

15

inches square by

six

inches high;

there are

too many

ugly

lines and cosmetic

plastic

latches

for my taste,

but at

least it doesn't

hog your

desk.

Its space

efficiency

is

even

more

impressive

when you pop

the top:

the

motherboard

fits under

the

drives,

with nothing

but

blank

metal beneath

the

Epson's

Equity

I: compact,

compatible, nothing to

write home about.

three

full -length expansion

slots (they're

on a small

platform plugged

into a moth-

erboard

bus, in an example

of the

Ep-

son's

modular architecture).

You'll have only two slots

free after

in-

stalling

a

video

card,

but a piggyback

RAM card ($169)

lets you upgrade

to

512K

without using one. (Going

to 640K

requires a

slot, but at

least parallel and

serial

ports are

standard.)

Epson's

monochrome

text card ($129)

looks

homely even

by text -card standards,

bris-

tling

with

capacitors

by

way of meeting

radio interference

rules and producing

faintly

wobbly

characters

on the

12 -inch

green

monitor ($149),

but the

Equity ac-

cepted all

my non

-Epson boards:

my

Quadboard

to reach 640K,

my

Tecmar

graphics adapter

for

video games,

and

my

All Sales

Final

Mail -Order

Mostly

Hercules -Compatible

Graphics

Card,

which lit constellations

of pixels

behind

Microsoft

Word just

as

it does in my

Tandy

1200.

There are several

convenient

touches,

from a power

socket

for your

monitor to

DIP switches

mounted

up front instead

of under

the

hood -little doors conceal

the switches,

reset button,

power switch,

and

keyboard connector.

The

keyboard

is first- class,

once

PC owners adapt

to its

AT -style layout

(giant shift,

Ctrl, and

Enter keys, but

the backslash

where

backspace

should

be and

no

separate

En-

ter

key

for

the

keypad).

While the

Epson ran

all the software

I

tried,

it's

worth

checking

out

the sup-

plied GW -BASIC

and

MS

-DOS

2.11

disks.

Beginners

will appreciate

several

menu

routines that

make tricky

FOR-

MAT or MODE

syntax or

Epson

printer

setup

as easy

as pressing

the arrow

and

72 /

MODERN

ELECTRONICS

/ September

1986

Say

You

Saw

It In Modern

Electronics

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