website/content/museum/morrow-designs-decision-1.md

---
title: Morrow Designs Decision 1
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1982'
cpus:
- Z80-A
params:
  name: Decision 1
  image: /media/museum/photos/morrowdesigns_decision1_system_1.jpg
  company: /companies/morrow-designs
  company_name: Morrow Designs
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Decision 1
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Morrow Designs
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1982'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Uses a serial video terminal
  - label: CPU
    value: Z80-A
  - label: SPEED
    value: 4 Mhz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: None
  - label: RAM
    value: 64 Kb / 128 Kb depending on models
  - label: ROM
    value: Unknown
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 chars. x 25 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: None
  - label: COLORS
    value: Monochrome
  - label: SOUND
    value: Beeper
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: 14 x S-100 slots, 3 x serial and 2 x parallel ports
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: |-
      1 or 2 x 5.25'' 400/800 Kb floppy disk drives\
      or 2 x 8'' 1Mb Kb floppy disk drives
  - label: OS
    value: CP/M 2.2, Micronix
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: S-100 boards
  - label: PRICE
    value: |-
      $3,495 - 2 x F.D.D version with CP/M 2.2 and WordStar\
      $5,295 - 5 MB hard-disk version\
      $7,290 - Three-user hard-disk version with Micronix O.S.
  comments:
  - author: furio ercolessi (Italy)
    date: Friday 19th August 2016
    text: I bought one with four 64k banks, a 16MB drive and Micronix for my father business in - I believe - 1982. Unfortunately the hard disk kept freezing due to a disk controller issue. Distance and lack of Internet did not help, and the local importer was of little help as well. So we used it with floppy and CP/M for a while, then we returned it and replaced it with an Olivetti M24. That was the second Unix machine in town, after a Cromemco System Three at the university.
  - author: Adrien Holtzman (Oshkosh, WI)
    date: Sunday 22nd December 2002
    text: If anyone is interested in purchasing one of these, I have one in pristine condition. It includes a serial terminal + dust cover, a cp/m primer+programming guide, cp/m 2.2, wordstar, extra disks and 2 diskholders, 2 8 inch disk dirves. The main unit has 2 64k memory cards, disk controller, z80 cpu card. it is currently not functioning because the dip switch settings on the terminal are not set correctly. I have documentation on what each switch means, but no idea what they should be set to. Somebody who has a good amount of knowledge about these comps would be able to fix it easily. Please direct any ?'s to rch@vbe.com. If nobody is interested in purchacing it act quickly, if no buyer is found I will put it up for auction on ebay after I fix it.
  oc_id: 648
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230417033502/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=648
    date: '2023-04-17'
---

The Decision 1 is one of the last S-100 BUS based computer generation. Morrow Designs held it as the most flexible of all.

On top of a classical CP/M 2.2 operating system, it also featured a special 8 bits version of Unix called **Micronix**, which allowed the compilation of many programs written in C for other machines under Unix.

The Decision 1’s multi user version allowed to manage up to 15 users and 20 simultaneous tasks. According to Morrow Designs, testing confirmed the Decision 1 was faster than any competing system based on 16 bits 68000 microprocessors.

---

**Bert Greeley** adds:\
I was working for George from 1979-81 when that machine was developed. About disk drives, originally, we used a 14" Shugart 14mb hard drive and Shugart 8" full-height floppy drives. We then went to the Tandon 1/2 height 8" drives, then to a 5" floppy drive whose manufacturer I don't remember. When Memorex came out with their 8"-5mb hard drive, we switched to them, then the 10mb version. BTW - the Decision II - or, as we called it, the "boat anchor" - was developed about the same time. This was the under-the-table box that was about 18"wide, 14" tall and 30" deep, as I recall. It was designed to fit in a rack-mount. Al (another Morrow employee at the time) and I installed 28 of these beasts at Micro Pro across the bay in San Rafael. My first job with George was rebuilding and aligning the heads on the floppy drives.

Also - the 68000-based systems were what caused the death of Morrow Designs - that and the S-100 buss. We couldn't get reliable speed above 8mHz with an 8-bit buss (Z-80). George toyed with the 8086 but he was steadfastly against a 16-bit OS. At least until after I left in '81. That's something about him I never understood.

I still have my original Imsai 8080 chassis with several Morrow S-100 cards. I don't have the drives any more, so the box doesn't run. I do have the OS, however, plus the source-code for the OS. At one point, I was promoted into writing assembly code for these machines. That led to my 27 or so years as a programmer.