[vcf-midatlantic] DEC Rainbow 100+

[Bill Degnan]

On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 8:24 PM Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> So we have an absolutely gorgeous, looking almost brand new, completely
> dec'ed out (see what I did there?), DEC Rainbow 100+ for hands on use in
> the museum now in the new business office display.
>
> It currently boots up to MS-DOS and runs the DEC WPS word processor. It
> also seems to have 123 installed, although there may have a copy
> protection issue.
>
> But what intrigues me the most is that the MS-DOS boot disk is E:... C:
> and D: appear to exist, but aren't MS-DOS formated.
>
> So, I'm guessing these might be CP/M partitions for the Z80 processor
> also in the DEC Rainbow. But, the big question, how do we tell it to
> boot CP/M?
>
> And, I understand it can also function as a standand alone VT-100
> terminal. How do we get it to go into that mode? This opens an entirely
> different world of uses once it is rotated out as the "business"
> computer on the business desk.
>
> Oh... most importantly... I had forgotten how absolutely gorgeous smooth
> scroll is.
>
> Thanks much,
>
>            -Adam
>
>
Basically you have to set the boot menu to select which OS to use, it will
then go to the assigned partitions for the OS of choice.  You can set it up
to copy files with some limitations, between DOS and CP/M.  It's in the
manual  how to set this up.  When you first fire it up, it should ask you
what OS to boot to.  You can tell the OS install on all partitions or leave
x drive letter for CP/M, etc.
Bill