Within a year or two of the IBM PC’s introduction, the handwriting was on the wall for the once-dominant manufacturers of S-100 bus, CP/M microcomputers. The PC was becoming the new small-system standard. Some vendors hedged their bets by introducing new dual-processor models that could run both CP/M and MS-DOS software, but not offer hardware compatibility with the PC.
Vector Graphic’s Vector 4 was one of the first such dual-processor systems, introduced in 1982. It kept the S-100 bus but added an 8088 CPU. CP/M was still the standard operating system with MS-DOS available as an option. In 1984, the Vector 4-S appeared, which could read PC-format floppy disks.
Introduced: 1982 (Vector 4), 1984 (Vector 4-S)
Original Retail Price: $3,295 to $9,995 (4-S)
Base Configuration: Z-80 and 8088 CPUs, CP/M (4)/CP/M-86 with GSX-86 (4-S); two S-100 slots (4-S); 128K RAM (256K max); floppy disk drive, integral monochrome CRT; keyboard; RS-232C, serial, and two parallel ports
Important Options: MS-DOS or Oasis, second floppy disk drive, 5MB to 36MB hard disk drive, color monitor, communications card
Vintage Computer Photos 