website/content/museum/mindset-corp-graphics-computer.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Mindset Corp. Graphics computer	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1984	16-bit Intel 80186	name image company company_name specs tabs photos hardware screenshots comments oc_id source Graphics computer /media/museum/photos/mindset_systemcut_s1.jpg /companies/mindset-corp Mindset Corp. label value NAME Graphics computer label value MANUFACTURER Mindset Corp. label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1984 label value END OF PRODUCTION Unknown label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke 84-key keyboard with separate numeric keypad label value CPU 16-bit Intel 80186 label value SPEED 6 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Two custom VLSI chips that handle graphics load label value RAM 128 KB expandable to 384 KB label value ROM Unknown label value TEXT MODES 40 or 80 columns x 25 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES 320x200, 640x400 (interlaced) label value COLORS 16 (for 320 mode), 2 (for 640 mode) all from 512 color palette label value SOUND 4 voice sound (optional stereo module planned, adding another 4 ) label value I/O PORTS RF modulator, NTSC composite out, analog RGB, synch, mouse, sound label value BUILT IN MEDIA Two modular ROM/NVRAM cartridge slots. Optional dual 5.25 label value OS MS-DOS 2.11 label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in Power switching supply unit label value PRICE $2400 (2 floppy drive, 256K RAM configuration) photos hardware software title subtitle text image DOUBLE-DECKER MAIN UNIT Notice the two ROM/NVRAM modules mounted on the front of the bottom main unit. /media/museum/photos/mindset_system_s1.jpg title subtitle text image FRONT VIEW /media/museum/photos/mindset_systemfront_s1.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD AND MOUSE CLOSE-UP The nice two-red-button mouse was made in Japan. It was one of the rare models to use a metal ball. /media/museum/photos/mindset_keyboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image RUNNING When not in use, the Mindset displays a rotating Mindset logo. /media/museum/photos/mindset_running_s1.jpg title subtitle text image CONNEXION The two units are connected and fixed together by a large bus connector. /media/museum/photos/mindset_connector_s1.jpg title subtitle text image COMPLETE SYSTEM Complete system with a Taxan Vision 420 colour monitor and a Xerox Diablo C150, one of the first and expensive colour ink-jet printer. /media/museum/photos/mindset_completesystem_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR SIDE From left to right:\ • Audio output jack\ • Composite video output jack\ • TV/RF video output jack\ • TV channel selector\ • RGB video output DB9 connector\ • External sync DB9 connector\ • Aux. In and Out jacks (we have no information about them) The system also featured 6 expansion slots, 3 in the main unit (above the rear connectors) and 3 in the disk/memory module. They were designed for future expansion that never see the light. /media/museum/photos/mindset_rear_s1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE Two expansion cards are mounted vertically. The front one supports the ROM/RAM module slots, the rear one is used for the connexion with the FDD/RAM module and also supports three expansion slots. /media/museum/photos/mindset_opened_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MAINBOARD **(1)** The two VLSI chips specially designed for the Mindset. They manage the graphics processing off the CPU\ **(2)** Rear expansion card\ **(3)** TV/RF modulator\ **(4)** Connector for the front expansion card\ **(5)** Two Intel 8042 microcontroller chips provide memory and I/O management\ **(6)** 32 KB base RAM memory (4x4416 chips). The rest of the RAM memory is located in the expansion module\ **(7)** Beeper\ **(8)** 32 KB BIOS ROMs (2x27128) /media/museum/photos/mindset_mainboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE THE EXPANSION MODULE The expansion module holds two half-size 5.25" 360 KB floppy-disk drives, 96 KB of basic RAM (soldered chips) and 128 KB of additional RAM (socketed chips). This module also provides three expansion slots. /media/museum/photos/mindset_insidefdunit_s1.jpg title subtitle text image CUSTOM CHIPSET CLOSE-UP /media/museum/photos/mindset_chipset_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MINDSET LABEL /media/museum/photos/mindset_label_s1.jpg title subtitle text image PARALLEL PRINTER MODULE /media/museum/hardware/mindset_printermodule_s1.jpg title subtitle text image LUMINA PAINT Picture made with the Lumina Paint program /media/museum/software/mindset_graphics_graphdemo_s1.jpg author date text Gene Apperson (Pullman, WA) Wednesday 15th November 2006 I worked for Microsoft starting in the early '80s (I started in March '83) and initially worked in the Basic language group. I implemented the Mindset extensions to the GW-Basic language. I think it was probably late '83 or early '84 when I did this. A sprite data type was added to the language. A sprite was made up of multiple bit maps. A sprite could be animated by giving it a line to follow, a velocity, and a rate at which to cycle through the bit maps. There was syntax added to the ON 'event' GOTO and ON 'event" GOSUB statements to add collision and arrival events so that the program would be notified when two sprites collided or when a sprite arrived at its destination. I did this work a long time ago, so I don't remember many of the details, (it was all written in 8086 assembler), but it wasn't very hard to do. There were a couple tricky memory mangement issues to solve, but it was pretty straight forward stuff. I never interracted directly with the animation hardware as there was a machine BIOS with functions to handle all of the hardware animation features. I never actually saw a production Mindset machine. We have a development machine, which was just a motherboard and power supply that wasn't even in a case. This was kept in a locked room and there were only about three people allowed in there. The only time I met Paul Allen was in there when he was being given a demo of the machine (at this time he was recovering from Hodgkins disease and wasn't actively involved in Microsoft any more). author date text Chuck Hunnefield (Lancaster, PA) Tuesday 5th July 2011 A friend of mine brought this computer over to my house. It came in it''s own nylon carrying case - very impressive looking. I think they took some design cues from Apple - everything was packaged on a whole other level from anything else I remember back then. It did indeed have hardware-based sprites and the extensions in GW-BASIC were amazing to behold. You could simply define a bitmap, tell it what direction to go, and it would simply travel there. All while you typed on the command line. I was awed by that! My friend had purchased a game that was written by Synapse Software, and it was the single most impressive game I had ever seen. It was called ''Viper'' and it was a 3D shoot ''em up, with incredible real-time 3D color animation - something I''d never seen before in a game. It was played with an analog joystick (also from Mindset). So what happened to this terrific computer? Like the Amiga, I think this machine was more than the general public thought they wanted. Back then, PC''s were for business - everything else was considered a ''game machine''. The word, ''multimedia'' had not yet been invented, and so there was no business case yet for having excellent graphics and sound. What also didn''t help is the fact that due to it''s use of the 80186 AND a slightly incompatible BIOS, true compatibility with DOS was not possible. Word got around that the Mindset had some difficulty with mainstream software and that pretty much sealed it''s fate. The 80186 went on to be featured in the Tandy 2000 and in RAID controllers. It was sold for many years after the Mindset, however, not as a primary microprocessor for a personal computer. author date text Chris Miller (United States) Saturday 6th June 2020 I have A MINDSET computer for sales with all docs. Make offer Chris@sales-happen.com author date text Bill Steedle (Farmingdale, Long Island, NY) Tuesday 25th August 2015 The "Visual Communications: Art $ Graphic Design" department at Farmingdale State College (SUNY) established a computer graphics lab with 12 Mindset computers during the mid 1980''s. The facilities included a video capture unit for input, and both a film recorder and a color ink-jet printer for output. They were amazing machines - nothing else quite like them at the time. We added an Artronics graphics system, and then Apple Macintosh systems. We currently have nearly 100 Macs in our department. author date text Doug Sunday 6th January 2013 Very interesting computer. This one got past me$ I do not recall\ hearing about it when it came out.\ Another rare use of the 80186 chip was in Convergent Technologies\ computers. They also had a stylish build reminiscent of the Mindset\ and the NeXT cubes. I used these at Burroughs, where they rebranded the line as the B-20 series. I think the B25 was an 80186. Some of the other models I recall were 8086. They sided stepped MS-DOS compatibility with a serious multi-tasking OS which in my opinion wasn''t matched for some time in the microcomputer world.\ A little after this, though, around 1985 I was developing on using Convergent Technology computers at Burroughs (rebranded B-25 series) and some of these were 80186 machines. T author date text Rokstenha (New York State) Wednesday 14th February 2007 I own a Mindset PC. Its graphics were amazing for the time. I chatted, briefly, with another in a CompUSA store. He thought that the Mindset was still or recently in use in Europe. I cannot verify that. It has been fun owning evidence for the 80186 chip. While taking courses at RIT I never found an instructor who accepted the fact that the 80186 chip ever existed. author date text Blake Patterson (Alexandria, VA) Wednesday 28th January 2004 I was always fascinated by this machine, though I never saw on in person. The writeup mentions that the Atari ST has the same graphics modes as the Mindset. While this is true, and while it is also true tha the 68000 in the Atari ST was a more powerful processor, the Mindset's animation abilities seem like to have been notably more powerful than that of the ST, more like that of the Amiga, given the custom graphics hardware present. (All animation on the Atari ST was fully driven by the CPU, there being no such custom hardware in its architecture.) 986 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230417011654/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=986 2023-04-17

This little-known graphics workstation is an intriguing example of the many, varied machines introduced in the mid 1980's.

The Mindset microcomputer, designed by two ex-Atari engineers, offered graphics performance far beyond that of other personal computers on the market at the time of its introduction in early 1984.

Based on the rarely seen, 16-bit Intel 80186 (also used in the Tandy Model 2000), the Mindset was a powerful graphics workstation built on a (mostly) MS-DOS compatible core. Two custom VLSI chips shouldered the burden of graphics heavy lifting; offering graphics performance 50 times that of the IBM PC, leaving the CPU free to handle other chores.

The system unit was striking to behold. Crafted by industrial design group, GVO, of Menlo Park, CA, the Mindset was chosen for a place in the Museum of Modern Art.

The main system unit lacked floppy disk storage but instead sported two, front-mounted ROM/NVRAM module ports. The system's serial and parallel interface, as well as system memory expansion, were also modular. A dual floppy drive expansion module attached to the top of the unit, giving it a futuristic, double-decker look (most units were sold with the floppy drive module bundled in).

The Mindset was one of the very first computers to come standard with a mouse; in this case, a two-button unit with a somewhat unwieldy, heavy cord and a metal mouse ball.
11 advanced graphics modes which could be seen on any of the system's three graphics outputs; impressive flexibility for its day. A very powerful paint program, Lumena from Time Arts, Inc., was available for the Mindset, allowing the creation of stunning, static images from its palette of 512 colors. Beyond the static, however, the machine's custom graphics hardware was capable of performing frame buffer animation at a speed 50 times greater than that of the IBM PC.

There were rumors that Atari CEO, Jack Tramiel, was considering purchasing the Mindset to bring it under the Atari flag. This did not happen, but it is interesting to note that the original Atari ST series computers, released a year later, featured almost exactly the same graphics modes and palette depth as the Mindset micro.

More information about this notable entry in computing history can be found at this on-line version of a Feb. '85 Creative Computing review.

Thanks to Blake Patterson for information.