website/content/museum/vector-graphics-mz.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Vector Graphics MZ	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1979	Z80A	name image logo company company_name specs tabs forum_thread links related oc_id source MZ /media/museum/photos/vectorgraphic_mz_system_1.jpg /media/museum/logos/vector-mz_logo.png /companies/vector-graphics Vector Graphics label value NAME MZ label value MANUFACTURER Vector Graphics label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1979 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full stroke 72 keys with numeric keypad label value CPU Z80A label value SPEED 4 MHz. label value RAM 48 KB label value ROM 4 KB (Monitor) label value TEXT MODES 80 chars. x 25 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES None label value COLORS Monochrome label value SOUND Beeper label value I/O PORTS 2 x Serial RS-232C, 1 x Parallel label value BUILT IN MEDIA Dual 5 label value OS CP/M label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS S-100 cards label value PRICE About $4800 links 780 title url text Vector Graphics 1976 - 1984 http://www.vectorgraphics.org.uk Web site dedicated to Vector Graphics systems title url text VECTOR-GRAPHIC List http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=VECTOR-GRAPHIC mailing list for Vector Graphic computers /museum/vector-graphics-vector-1 /museum/vector-graphics-vector-3-vip /museum/vector-graphics-vector-4 799 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230223072241/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=799 2023-02-23

The Vector Graphic MZ featured the same hardware basis as the VIP model: S-100 based system with a Z80A processor running CP/M operating system.
However, its separate main unit had an 18 slot motherboard and integral dual floppy disc drives (2 x 315 KB).

The system came with 48 KB of RAM, 4 KB monitor ROM, and used the Vector 3 "Mindless Terminal". Although it may look like a terminal, the Mindless Terminal only had a parallel keyboard, and a B/W monitor. All video and keyboard interface was via S-100 card called Flashwriter, with all power signals passed via a DB-25 connector.

A little more information about Vector Graphics Company, in 1980:
Systems shipped:
Vector 1, Vector 1+, Vector 1++ - 1,500 systems
Vector MZ, System B, Memorite 2 - 4,500 systems
Location of facility Westlake Village, California.
Number of square feet - 40,000
Number of employees - 140
Sales level:
Year ending June 30, 1979 - $6 million
Year ending June 30, 1978 - $2 million
Year ending June 30, 1977 - $400 K

The first shipped product was a 8 KB memory card, in September 1976.

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Jay Abel's memories:
I wrote drivers for this machine many, many years ago. It did, in fact, have a rough graphic facility. Each character cell was divided into six parts, and by changing the character ROM offset you could draw monochrome graphics with 160 x 72 resolution. Hey, back then, drawing a circle on the screen was a big deal.

Later models shipped with Double-Sided, double-density Micropolis Hard-sectored 5-1/4" floppy drives. I ported UCSD pascal to mine, and moved the drivers to the "scratchpad" (unused) 2k memory on the video card. I added an 8k RAM board to the original 48k that came with it. Though my machine didn't ship with CP/M, it was easy to port.
The only difficult part was that there was no standard boot code, owing to the wierd hard sectored drives with the most rudimentary controller possible, so once you go the O/S ported you had to write your own loaded. The only capability provided by the BIOS was to pull the first sector into memory. And this first sector was in a wierd format, so that the bootstrap couldn't be copied by the target O/S. So you *also* had to write a special program to copy the boot sector...