Information from ad in 68' Micro Journal (July 1983 pages 32 and 33)
The S+ system is a modular computer system in which all portions of the hardware and software are designed to work together in the most efficient way possible. An S+ single user system with floppy disk storage is a competitive and cost effective entry level system. Unlike most other small computers being sold as "personal", or "small business" machines, the S+ system may be expanded to maximum capabilities using this same hardware and software. You cannot end up with a DEAD END system that cannot be expanded and whose software is not compatible with larger machines. A basic S+ system may be expanded to thirty-two users, a megabyte of main memory and hundreds of megabytes of hard disk storage by simply plugging in, or connecting the desired upgrade equipment.
The S+ system is an integrated hardware and software design. The two complement and enhance each other in this system. The UniFLEX®' operating system used in the S+ systems is patterned after the Bell Laboratories UNIX® operating system, one of the most admired and widely used operating systems in the world. Instead of being an afterthought, the software is part of the design of the S+ system. You can be sure that with this approach that all parts of the computer operate with maximum efficiency and cost effectiveness.
The basic S+ system is configured with 256K bytes of memory and can be expanded to more than 1 million bytes. An efficient and fast hardware memory management system is used to allocate the available memory among the users on a dynamic basis. As little as 8K bytes, or the entire memory-if needed-can be used by any individual user. This makes it possible to run very large programs on the system, but it also uses no more memory than necessary for a particular job. The increase in cost effectiveness of this system over crude and outdated bank switching arrangements is dramatic.
The central processor runs in both user and supervisor states. It can detect and reject a defective user program. It is impossible for a user program to go bad and stop the entire system, as can happen quite easily in less sophisticated systems.
Task switching is accomplished by use of a multiple map RAM memory, with sixty-four individual task maps. Each task can access from 4 to 64 K-bytes of memory. Multiple tasks may be used in programs that require more than 64K bytes of memory for execution. When a task is completed the memory is automatically released for other use.
The S+ operating system, UniFLEX® is a multiuser, multitasking operating system based on the UNIX® operating system that has been used for many years on Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-11 series minicomputers. It is considered one of the most sophisticated and "user friendly" operating systems available. Variations of UNIX® are rapidly becoming standard on mini and larger microcomputers.
A large variety of languages are available for use with the system. These include FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, and Pascal. Word processing packages are also available to give you full text processing capability on the system.
Applications programs are available in large quantities in many fields. This includes general business, medical, dental, veterinary, library and real estate management; plus others. Since the system is multiuser it can also be connected to cash registers to produce a point-of-sale terminal system combined with the computer. The possibilities for application of this system are endless.
The S+ system is totally interrupt driven. All terminal and printer I/O devices connect to an I/O bus separate from the main bus. Up to thirty-two separate devices may be connected to the I/O bus at any one time. If I/O activity is great enough to cause an unacceptable slowdown in system operation, a separate I/O processor can be installed in the system. This plug-in option removes all I/O handling overhead from the main processor and allows operation of up to thirty-two external devices at 9,600 baud. Without an integrated total design, as in the S+ system, it would become impractical to use a UNIX® type operating system in a situation with heavy terminal I/O activity.
A wide range of disk storage capacity is available for the S+ system, from 2.5 M-byte floppy disks to an 80 M-byte Winchester and many sizes between. All disk controllers use direct memory access (DMA) type operations to maximize data transfer and to minimize overhead on the main processor. The Winchester disks also use intelligent controllers along with DMA transfers to preserve the performance that these type devices are capable of giving. Without this distributed intelligence the system performance would be greatly degraded. The UniFLEX® operating system is designed to work at maximum efficiency with this type disk system. The data transfer rates achieved by this combination rival those of large minicomputers.
A high speed local network communications system is available to interconnect S+ systems. The VIABUS® network will allow communication between systems at data rates of over 400K baud. Such a system makes it possible to share data between local systems in an efficient and low-cost manner.
Tape backup-20M-Byte in less than 15 minutes on a standard 1/4 inch cartridge.
Mini-Wini-5 and 10 M-Byte Winchesters-5 1/4, inch package. Winchester performance, for smaller systems in a small package. UniFLEX® compatible design.
Large Capacity-190 and 340 M-Byte Winchesters, plus SMD cartridge drives.
UniFLEX is a registered Trademark of Technical Systems Consultants,
Inc•.
UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Labs.
VIABUS is a registered trademark of Southwest Technical Products
Corporation.
