Re: Microsoft?

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <5e6eba$lt@nntp1.u.washington.edu> dpeschel@u.washington.edu
(Derek Peschel) writes:
>In article <19970216015040190766@ip203-118.cc.interlog.com>,
>David Arnett <darnett@interlog.com> wrote:
>
>>Did the Microsoft company we all know ever make hardware?  I have an old
>>Z80 card for the AppleII computer made by "Microsoft Consumer Products"
>>in 1980.  I wondered if it was the same company and if so, what became
>>of their hardware division?  
>
>It's the same company.  They might have put their name on a card originally
>manufactured by someone else, though.

Yep.  The original Softcard manual has a note near the front:

     Designer:  The SoftCard circuit board was designed by Don Burtis of
     Burtronix, Villa Park, California.  Microsoft Consumer Products is
     grateful to Burtornix for its contribution to making the SoftCard
     a reality.

     Manufacturer:  The SoftCard circuit board is manufactured for Microsoft
     Consumer Products by Vista Computer Co. of Santa Ana, California.

>BTW, to head off your probable next question, the card will run CP/M but you
>need a version that goes with the card (in part because it needs to handle the
>Disk ][, in part because MS apparently changed the ROMs on different versions
>of the card or something).

The Softcard (or at least the original version of it) has no ROM.  Different
boot disks are needed because there are at least three different things
called Softcard out there, each one with its own unique architecture
(there's the original Softcard, the Premium Softcard IIe [a IIe aux slot
card that doubles as an 80-column/64K card], and the CATS Softcard [about
which I know nothing, except that it's different from the other two]).


The Softcard isn't the only Apple II hardware they sold--they also made a
16K card for the Apple II+.  They made Apple software too--when my family
bought its first II+, it came with Microsoft Olympic Decathlon and
Microsoft Typing Tutor.

             - Neil Parker
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