website/content/museum/computer-devices-incorporated-dot.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
COMPUTER DEVICES INCORPORATED DOT	Computers	Pocket	U.S.A.	1983	Intel 8088	name image company company_name specs tabs photos comments oc_id source DOT /media/museum/photos/dot_computer.jpg /companies/computer-devices-incorporated COMPUTER DEVICES INCORPORATED label value NAME DOT label value MANUFACTURER Computer Devices Incorporated label value TYPE Pocket label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR may 1983 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke 89 keys with numeric keypad and 10 function keys label value CPU Intel 8088 (16-bit cpu) label value SPEED 5 Mhz label value CO-PROCESSOR optional Intel 8087 math co-processor, optional Z80 board for CP/M compatibility label value RAM 64 KB or 128KB of main user RAM expandable to 256KB on a single board (optional 64K OEM unit). Up to 704KB of main memory with an expander board. 2KB of static RAM memory for terminal configuration label value VRAM 32 KB label value ROM 24 KB or 64 KB depending models label value TEXT MODES 40 columns x 25 or 16 lines / 80 x 25-16 / 132 x 25-16 label value GRAPHIC MODES 40 x 16 / 40 x 25 / 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 512 x 254 / 1024 x 254 / 1056 x 254 label value COLORS Monochrome label value SOUND Beeper label value SIZE / WEIGHT 46 x 38 x 19 cm / 19 Kg label value I/O PORTS Two expansion slots, two RS232/V24 ports, external monitor, parallel port optional label value BUILT IN MEDIA one or two 3.5'' floppy disk drives (287 KB each); average acces time: 365 ms; transfer rate: 500 KB/s label value OS MS DOS label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit, 100w label value PERIPHERALS Embedded printer, 2 x Serial RS-232 ports, Z80 card, built-in 300/1200 bauds modem, IBM 3780 & 327x compatible boards label value PRICE From $2995 to $3997, depending upon options photos title subtitle text image THE DOT COMPUTER /media/museum/photos/dot2.jpg title subtitle text image THE DOT LOGO /media/museum/photos/dot3.jpg title subtitle text image HAPPY GUY /media/museum/photos/cdi_dot_pub_2.jpg author date text AutoFox (USA) Tuesday 2nd February 2021 I actually have one of these! Friend found it - of all places - in the attic of a Quaker meeting house, and gave it to me as I''m into old computer systems. It still boots, and the printer still works even! Sadly, the disk drives seem to be dead, so I can''t do much with it... author date text Bob Gershaw (massachusetts) Saturday 20th June 2015 I worked on the development of the Sony drive interface unfortunately it was totally analog with plenty of problems and even though there was a chip set available which worked the management insisted on using the analog interface and pestered Sony to get the bugs out since it was a recommended circuit by them this caused long delays in its release and never worked right. It was kind of a cool design though. one problem the thermal paper''s txt faded quite quickly. I worked with Dave Epstien a great guy. Miss you dave. author date text Paul D. Conley (Durant, OK) Friday 29th May 2015 I attempted to use the DOT Computer as the principle input/output device, to a Department of Defense Network computer program I designed! The DOT Computer, for all of the great designed elements, Portability, Printer, Sony disc drive, key board, Screen, was the best device for my program, with Packet-networking, to a network of 60 Sequent Computers, operating 386 Duel Unix system! I would have bought 1 Dot Computer for each Army Detachment or Company, which would have been 25,000 units! But alas, at the time when I went to Billerica, Massachusetts to present my program, Computer Devices was in Bankruptcy and had stored the production units away in a garage and could not (would not?) release the units to the US Army! author date text Doug Connell (USA) Wednesday 10th July 2013 If anyone is interested I still have my DOT computer with reams of company software and the back up parts they sold as an extra. I last used it in 1997 as an office computer to track business expenses at a small business I had. Email:taxmannh@hotmail.com. Hate to see it be trashed. author date text R Keith Beal (Irvine, Ca) Wednesday 22nd February 2012 I was a developer on the Dot project.\ The hardware was 100$ IBM PC-compatible.\ To test it for compatibility they hired a typist to keyboard the BIOS source from the IBM PC Technical Reference.\ We built it on an Intel MDS "Big Blue Box", burned EEPROMs and used it to qualify the hardware. Our team wrote the BIOS with the help of some contractors.\ Two of the contractors later took the code and founded Phoenix Associates. It was the first computer to use the Sony 3.5 floppy. author date text Bob Norman (USA) Tuesday 4th October 2011 This computer came out shortly after I left Computer Devices. They nicknamed it "DEC''s other terminal" as most of the top management came over when i left from DEC. It had real potential and the DOS was not cloned/copied from IBM (later a legal issue for Panasonic and others). CDI developed from scratch. The team later became Phoenix Bios developer, as i remember. BUT it was not 100$ IBM compatible BUT legal, BUT the world wanted 100$ (Flight Simulator test). So, it got little traction. It was also expensive but quality. author date text Curtis Wilbar (MA, USA) Tuesday 4th January 2011 No, the DOT is not 100$ compatable. DOT DOS 1.something was the version that shipped with these systems. There was an unreleased port of DOS 2.0. Besides some differences in video, as I understand it the BIOS was not 100$ compatible requiring software using (certain ?) BIOS calls to be ''ported''. author date text Nick Robinson (Australia) Monday 18th March 2002 I would like to know if this Computer is 100% IBM PC Compatible? 116 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230330085435/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=116 2023-03-30

The DOT was a portable IBM PC compatible computer. It was the last portable computer developed by Computer Devices Incorporated (CDI) back in 1981-1983. It followed the example of the Osborne systems, its main competitors. But while most other transportable systems were powered by 8-bit microprocessors, the DOT used a "powerful" 16-bit Intel 8088.

It has a wide built-in 5 x 9" green monochrome display which can display up to 1056 x 254 pixels or 132 x 25 characters. There are 256 characters from the original IBM PC character set for compatibility, as well as 256 more characters for double size displays. The DOT features a real time clock. One or two (depending models) 3.5'' Sony disk drives were mounted inside the system (287 KB each).

An optional Zilog Z80 expansion board allowing to run CP/M 2.2 was also available.

There is also an optional thermal printer (160 cps) mounted on top of the monitor, which can print everything displayed on the screen. It can also be remotely operated through 1200 baud line. Here are the Printer characteristics :

- Print method: Thermal, with a 5 x 10 dot matrix
- Print speed: 160 characters per second bidirectional
- Paper: 8 3/4 " wide, thermal paper; 150' or 100' roll with last 5' color coded
- Line length (characters): 80/132 columns, selectable
- Automatic carriage return and line feed: At 81st or 137th column
- Character spacing: Vertical - 6 lines per inch Horizontal 80 column: 10 . 7 characters/inch 132 column: 18.4 characters/inch
- Graphics density: Vertical - 64 dots per inch Horizontal - 64 or 128 dots per inch
- Paper feeds : friction drive, 30 line feeds per second

This is some of the software available: MS-DOS, CP/M (optional), assembler, Basic, Fortran, Cobol, Pascal, C, macro-assembler, Pearl, Record Manager, terminal emulation (TTY, IBM 3101, 327x, 3780, VT100), mailing, Volkswriter (wordprocessor), Multiplan, Time Manager, Project Manager...