Talk:Rainbow 100

message: Is this it? -- AnonMoos (talk) 15:45, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, it is the Rainbow. Rilak (talk) 04:55, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Photo

message: Interestingly, this is the machine seen in the 1984 film Ghostbusters. .  Don't know if it warrants a mention or not though. ;) 66.191.19.217 (talk)
There is also a scene in the movie The Philadelphia Experiment where an advertisement for the Rainbow is playing on a TV in the background.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.170.146.228 (talk) 22:23, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ghostbusters 

message: from http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?st=1&c=284
	Full-stroke keyboard with function keys, editing keypad and numeric keypad.
Intel 8088 + Zilog Z80 A
4.81 MHz (8088) / 4 MHz (Z80)
RAM:64 KB (up to 896 KB)
ROM:24 KB (includes self-diagnostics)
TEXT MODES:40 x 24 / 80 x 24 / 132 x 24
GRAPHIC MODES:320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 800 x 240
COLORS:16 among 4096 (optional)
SIZE / WEIGHT:48.3 (W) x 36.3 (D) x 16.5 (H) cm (system unit)
I/O PORTS:2 x RS-232, keyboard, monitor
Two 400 KB 5.25 disk-drives
MS DOS(different than IBM MS  DOS) + CP/M (+ CP/M 86 - Prologue )
Built-in switching power supply unit
3 expansion slots
I remember the interior of these had a bronze colored internal frame- I'm not sure it it was really bronze, 
Also, the monitor port was not CGA or VGA, it might have been a proprietary DEC port. Possibly standard for VT Terminals? Cuvtixo (talk) 20:25, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some references 

message: At 3M in the mid-1980s we sold a family of four microfilm aperture card duplicator machines, the 9x8 series. The DEC Rainbow 100 was available as an extra-cost option. It was called a 'system controller' to avoid a USAF embargo on personal computer purchases. Its purpose was ostensibly to facilitate operation of the 9x8. In actuality, it greatly inhibited jam recovery, which was the result of poor system integration on the part of 3M. Most users unplugged the DEC, and relegated it to spider habitat service.LorenzoB (talk) 20:42, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Microfilm Application 

message: If
Of note was the single motor used to drive both disk drives via a common spindle, which were arranged one on top of the other. That meant that one disk went underneath the first but inserted upside-down. This earned the diskette drive the nickname "toaster".[citation needed] The unusual orientation
is true (one motor, one spindle, one of two discs upside-down) then
1. always two drives run, if only one disc is to be read. If a second disc is inserted, would mean that often unnecessarily the 2nd disc rotates and weares out.
2. the two dics are driven in opposite directions (according to their geometry). I do not think, that the motor (and the sole spindle) turns sometimes in one and at ozher times in the other direction.
--
The Operating Manual
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp11/microPDP11/AZ-FI13A-MC_MicroPDP11_Systems_Owners_Manual_Jun86.pdf
speaks on page 2-9
of RX50 Diskettes
and shows a double drive, that seems (see the levers) to take the second diskette upside-down.
At least for copying diskettes, one to the other it is necessary, that both diskettes are inserted, are driven in the same direction responding to the case (soft, flat sleeve) and are driven (at least for some time intervalls) at the same time.
I expect, that contradicts to the existence of a single spindle for both drives.
--Helium4 (talk) 13:36, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  FDDs : I do not think, that both share one single spindle 

message: I don't have a reference for this, but Borland Turbo Pascal was released for the Rainbow and was a pretty decent development environment and allowed access to the screen's graphics mode.  I used it for a class project though I can't recall if it ran under CPM/86 or MS-DOS.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.202.33.17 (talk) 05:17, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Software