Wang 2200 Computer
Nearly a decade ago, I had a small web page on AOL about the Wang 2200 Computer. That page went away shortly after it was created when I switched to a “real” ISP that didn’t require me to upgrade my computer every six months to keep up with their software changes. Trust me; somebody who hangs onto a computer for more than ten years is very unlikely to replace one just because the marketroids tell him to!
Anyway, that page has been gone for a long time and in the intervening years; much better resources have become available for someone interested in this venerable computer.
According to Google, the top-rated source of information on the Wang 2200 belongs to Jim Battle and can be found at:
Mr. Battle has everything you could possibly want to know about the Wang 2200 including architecture details, manuals, software, and an emulator that runs the original software.
If you’re looking for pretty pictures, the DigiBarn Computer museum has some very nice photographs of the Wang 2200 and assorted peripherals. These can be found at:
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/wang2200a/wang2200ab.html
Strangely enough, at least one of the systems at the DigiBarn was donated by the same Jim Battle that operates the www.wang2200.org website. It’s just a small world, isn’t it?
So, for now, the only contribution I can make to the Wang 2200 knowledge base is a Usenet post (and several replies) that circulated on alt.folklore.computers beginning on September 28, 1998.
Thanks for your attention.
--
Micheal H. McCabe
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: p98mcc...@aol.com (P98McCabe)
Date: 1998/09/28
Subject: Wang 2200 Computer
The recent thread concerning Wang Laboratories and Tee Shirts
reminded me of the first single-user computer system my school
purchased in the mid 1970's. The computer in question was a
Wang 2200A Minicomputer. We acquired it (used, I believe) in
1976 or 1977. It replaced a set of Teletypes used to access a
local college timesharing system (a Univac 90/60).
Despite the jokes, I remember the Wang as a tremendous improvement
over the Univac. Response times were unbelievably fast - and
the system rarely crashed or "locked up" due to communication
problems.
The computer was built like a tank. A heavy steel console and
monitor rested on a compact desk. The power supply and CPU sat
on a shelf beneath the desktop and were accessed from the rear.
The system sounded "like a nuclear reactor" or "jet helicopter"
when started. Closing the toggle switch under the desktop
operated a heavy-duty relay that "clacked!" as it energized a
number of noisy cooling fans in the power supply and CPU. Even
when brand new, the fans and transformers in the power supply
made a distinctive whine.
After a few moments, the Motorola CRT display warmed up and the
READY
:_
message appeared. BASIC was in ROM so there was no discernable
bootstrap delay; as soon as the CRT warmed up, you were ready to
begin computing.
The keyboard we had was truly awful. Wang apparently didn't
want their computers to compete with their word processors. The
layout resembled certain programmable calculators of the period:
four zones grouped by function.
Zone One was an eight by four array of square keyswitches labeled
with BASIC keywords. The keywords were typed on cardboard and
inserted beneath clear keycaps. The Roman Alphabet and certain
punctuation marks were also generated by pressing zone one keys in
conjunction with a shift key. The keys were in alphabetical order
running left to right then top down.
Zone Two was a numeric keypad arranged in typical calculator
fashion with the Execute Key on the lower right.
Zone Three included arithmetic operators, trigonometric functions,
and more punctuation marks.
Zone Four was a vertical four key arrangement of editing and error
correction keys.
Four individual control keys were arranged around the four basic
keyboard zones: Shift Lock, Reset, and two Shift Keys.
Above the main keyboard there were sixteen programmable function
keys that the user could define within a program.
The CRT display was a simple monochrome NTSC Composite Video
monitor mounted in an armored case with a cassette tape storage
unit located on the lower right side. It could display 16 lines
of 64 characters each and pretty much worked like a "glass
teletype" with no special formatting commands or graphics that
I can recall. Our particular unit was very touchy in terms of
the contrast and brightness control - you learned to be a very
careful knob twiddler or you couldn't read the screen!
The BASIC language spoken by the Wang was heavy on math and
pretty weak in terms of text manipulation. I seem to remember
that the default string length was 16 characters, but that you
could allocate up to 64 characters for a "long string." I can't
remember if Wang basic had any intrinsic Matrix Functions.
For some reason, I kept a few pages of notes on the Wang's
general specifications; I'll include some of them here, even
though this is getting to be a v e r y l o n g p o s t:
Central Processing Unit - Model 2200A:
Memory Size: 4,096 bytes (expandable to 32K)
Peripheral Capacity: 6 (expandable in increments of 5)
Floating Point Range: 10^-99 to 10^99
Weight (CPU Only): 60 lbs (24 kg)
Average Execution Times: (Milliseconds)
Add / Subtract 0.8
Multiply / Divide 3.8 / 7.4
Square Root / E^X 46.4 / 25.3
LOGe X / X^Y 23.2 / 45.4
INT / ABS 0.24 / 0.02
SGN / SIN 0.25 / 38.3
COS / TAN 38.9 / 78.5
ATN 72.5
Memory Cycle 1.6 microseconds
Peripheral Devices:
2201 Output Writer (A Converted Selectric)
2202 Plotting Output Writer
2203 Punched Paper Tape Reader
2212 Flatbed Plotter
2214 Mark Sense Card Reader
2215 BASIC Keyboard Module
2216 CRT Display Module
2217 Magnetic Tape Cassette Reader / Recorder
2219 I/O Extension Chassis
2221 High Speed Line Printer (132 column)
2222 Alphanumeric Keyboard Module
2230 Disk Memory (1 to 4 megabytes total storage)
2231 High Speed Printer (80 column)
2207 Teletype Controller
2227 Telecommunications Controller
Sorry for the long-winded post and thanks for your
attention.
--
Micheal H. McCabe
p98mcc...@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: se...@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)
Date: 1998/09/28
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
In article <19980928000028.29845.00000...@ng84.aol.com>,
P98McCabe <p98mcc...@aol.com> wrote:
>The keyboard we had was truly awful.
Interesting! We had one of these at home when I was a kid (long story),
and the keyboard was pretty reasonable. I seem to recall a row of 15
thin (maybe 1/8" from keyboard-bottom to keyboard-top) keys with curved
tops that were function keys, a reset button or some such, and then a fairly
normal keyboard. The keys had colored plastic things on them, so the keycaps
themselves were really blank, but above each was a piece of paper (!) with
the key's letter on it, and above that, a colored thing. I had some amount
of fun redesigning it once. :)
>Above the main keyboard there were sixteen programmable function
>keys that the user could define within a program.
Huh, I was sure it was 15, because F15 was the key to bowl in the bowling
game.
>Central Processing Unit - Model 2200A:
>Memory Size: 4,096 bytes (expandable to 32K)
Hmm. Ours was a plain old 2200, started at 16k, expanded later
to 24.
So, there was this box, about 2 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet or so, on big
steel feet, which was "the disk drive". It had 2' or so removable
media, which held something on the order of 5MB. My parents got a whole
bunch of them, two of each, and got one extra pair on which they put
a collection of games for me.
It's to this that I attribute my current career; when I was barely big enough
to sit at the keyboard, I was quite solidly indoctrinated in the idea that
there was nothing special about computers, they were just little boxes that
obeyed you.
-s
--
Copyright 1998, All rights reserved. Peter Seebach / se...@plethora.net
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter. Boycott Spamazon!
Seeking interesting programming projects. Not interested in commuting.
Visit my new ISP <URL:http://www.plethora.net/> --- More Net, Less Spam!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Andreas Kabel <aka...@mpylxkabel.desy.de>
Date: 1998/09/28
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
se...@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) writes:
> In article <19980928000028.29845.00000...@ng84.aol.com>,
> P98McCabe <p98mcc...@aol.com> wrote:
> >The keyboard we had was truly awful.
> Interesting! We had one of these at home when I was a kid (long story),
> and the keyboard was pretty reasonable. I seem to recall a row of 15
> thin (maybe 1/8" from keyboard-bottom to keyboard-top) keys with curved
> tops that were function keys, a reset button or some such, and then a fairly
> normal keyboard. The keys had colored plastic things on them, so the keycaps
> themselves were really blank, but above each was a piece of paper (!) with
> the key's letter on it, and above that, a colored thing. I had some amount
> of fun redesigning it once. :)
Right. That's the keyboard I remember from our machine at school.
> >Above the main keyboard there were sixteen programmable function
> >keys that the user could define within a program.
> Huh, I was sure it was 15, because F15 was the key to bowl in the bowling
> game.
> >Central Processing Unit - Model 2200A:
> >Memory Size: 4,096 bytes (expandable to 32K)
> Hmm. Ours was a plain old 2200, started at 16k, expanded later
> to 24.
> So, there was this box, about 2 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet or so, on big
> steel feet, which was "the disk drive". It had 2' or so removable
> media, which held something on the order of 5MB. My parents got a whole
> bunch of them, two of each, and got one extra pair on which they put
We had a double diskette drive. It used 8" Disks, was as big as a
small dishwasher, and had a "Format" button in front. The alternative
to using floppy disks (boy, were they expensive back then) was to use
tapes. You had to use CrO_2 tapes, and you couldn't use both sides, as
the drive used a full-track head. Also, the drive ran at much higher
speed than 4.75cm/s and had some sort of random access mechanism.
I still must have some tapes somewhere ... To be allowed to use the
computer, one had to pass a BASIC test. My task was it to write a
sorting program which was supposed to sort an array of 10 real
numbers. I had to code with pencil and paper, and later on to type my
program into the machine under the supervision of a teacher. It was
my first program, and it was the last one to run right away without
debugging.
Ciao,
Andreas
--
Andreas Kabel | Akazienweg 10
DESY/MPY | 22869 Schenefeld
Notkestr. 85 | +49-40-83929003 (home)
22607 Hamburg, Germany | +49-40-89982755 (office)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: "S. L. Wellborn" <gigab...@technologist.com>
Date: 1998/09/28
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
Your 2200A sounds completely different than the 2200 in my shop/museum.
The 2200 that I have is about the size of a dishwasher with a full length
plastic faceplate, one 8" floppy drive, one 8" hard drive mounted inside, a
Wang serial terminal with similar styling tilt & swivel monitor and separate
keyboard (early eighties?) its been a while since I looked inside but I seem
to recall that it had several NEC 3880? CPUs and about a dozen serial ports
for terminals.
I never did find a boot disk for it and it doesn't seem to want to boot from
the hard drive, I thought it might be like some of my old Vector Graphic
machines where you have to ^B to get it to boot from the hard drive, but no
luck.
If there are any other "Wangite's" out there that could shed some light on
the operation of this beast it would be much appreciated.
P98McCabe wrote in message <19980928000028.29845.00000...@ng84.aol.com>...
>The recent thread concerning Wang Laboratories and Tee Shirts
>reminded me of the first single-user computer system my school
>purchased in the mid 1970's. The computer in question was a
>Wang 2200A Minicomputer. We acquired it (used, I believe) in
>1976 or 1977. It replaced a set of Teletypes used to access a
>local college timesharing system (a Univac 90/60).
<snipped>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mult...@wizvax.wizvax.net (Richard Shetron)
Date: 1998/09/29
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
In article <Q3FP1.2628$Ge.8584...@ptah.visi.com>,
Peter Seebach <se...@plethora.net> wrote:
>In article <19980928000028.29845.00000...@ng84.aol.com>,
>P98McCabe <p98mcc...@aol.com> wrote:
[snip]
>>Above the main keyboard there were sixteen programmable function
>>keys that the user could define within a program.
>Huh, I was sure it was 15, because F15 was the key to bowl in the bowling
>game.
The function keys are F0 thorugh F15 and shifted F16 through F31.
>>Central Processing Unit - Model 2200A:
>>Memory Size: 4,096 bytes (expandable to 32K)
>Hmm. Ours was a plain old 2200, started at 16k, expanded later
>to 24.
>So, there was this box, about 2 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet or so, on big
>steel feet, which was "the disk drive". It had 2' or so removable
>media, which held something on the order of 5MB. My parents got a whole
>bunch of them, two of each, and got one extra pair on which they put
>a collection of games for me.
I think that was a 2260? diablo drive. They had 5MB fixed and 5MB
removable. The disk packs were about the sixe of a 2 inch thick frisbee.
We had one where I worked doing customer support and when we got packs
in from customers we'd occasionally have to stick them in the freezer
or a snow bank to cool them so the drive would read them. The drive
was either not temp compensated or the temp compensation worked poorly
or there was alot of variation from drive to drive.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mult...@wizvax.wizvax.net (Richard Shetron)
Date: 1998/09/29
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
In article <6uobp7$mt...@haus.efn.org>,
S. L. Wellborn <gigab...@technologist.com> wrote:
>Your 2200A sounds completely different than the 2200 in my shop/museum.
>The 2200 that I have is about the size of a dishwasher with a full length
>plastic faceplate, one 8" floppy drive, one 8" hard drive mounted inside, a
>Wang serial terminal with similar styling tilt & swivel monitor and separate
>keyboard (early eighties?) its been a while since I looked inside but I seem
>to recall that it had several NEC 3880? CPUs and about a dozen serial ports
>for terminals.
Sounds like an LVP, but there may have been a model before that with 8"
drives. The LVP is the only model I saw with 8" drives. We did have
a set of 8" single sided drives, the LVP was double sided.
>I never did find a boot disk for it and it doesn't seem to want to boot from
>the hard drive, I thought it might be like some of my old Vector Graphic
>machines where you have to ^B to get it to boot from the hard drive, but no
>luck.
>If there are any other "Wangite's" out there that could shed some light on
>the operation of this beast it would be much appreciated.
You should get a prompt in the upper left corner that includes SF?.
Pressing Special function key 0 or 1 (IIRC) will cause it to try to boot
off either the internal hard drive or the floppy depending on the key.
If you press the wrong key and it 'hangs', just press reset and try the
next key.
There are 2 different 4 port controllers, the MXD and the MXE. The MXE is
a newer and smarter controller. I think it had a Z80 on it. There were
also several combo controller serial/disk/printer, disk/printer, etc.
I think there was a 8 port controller made about the end of the line
when wang went from proprietary CPU to a 386 with firmware. The 386
almost fully emulated the 2200, but was noticably faster. I think the
386 models started our with 1MB RAM and could have more. I know the
2200-386 we had did have 1MB.
I haven't worked on a 2200 since 1995 so I'm getting rusty. There are at
least 2 companies that make 2200 emulation software, Niakwa and KCML.
On a 286, the Niakwa emulator runs up to 6 times faster, on a 486,
it really flies.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me-ple...@brouhaha.com>
Date: 1998/09/29
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
"S. L. Wellborn" <gigab...@technologist.com> writes:
> Your 2200A sounds completely different than the 2200 in my shop/museum.
> The 2200 that I have is about the size of a dishwasher with a full length
...
> to recall that it had several NEC 3880? CPUs and about a dozen serial ports
If it's a Mostek 3880, it's a Z-80 CPU. (Note that "Z-80" is not a sufficient
designation to identify a Z-80 CPU, because there were also Z-80 PIO, Z-80 SIO,
Z-80 CTC, etc.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: "S. L. Wellborn" <gigab...@technologist.com>
Date: 1998/10/01
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
Thanks for the info, I'll try that as soon as I get the stacks of
Alpha Micro & Kaypro stuff out from in front of it.
>You should get a prompt in the upper left corner that includes SF?.
>Pressing Special function key 0 or 1 (IIRC) will cause it to try to boot
>off either the internal hard drive or the floppy depending on the key.
>If you press the wrong key and it 'hangs', just press reset and try the
>next key.
BTW, since I didn't get any disks with it, are they supposed to be hard
sectored or soft sectored?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mult...@wizvax.wizvax.net (Richard Shetron)
Date: 1998/10/01
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
In article <6uvc21$kr...@haus.efn.org>,
S. L. Wellborn <gigab...@technologist.com> wrote:
>Thanks for the info, I'll try that as soon as I get the stacks of
>Alpha Micro & Kaypro stuff out from in front of it.
>>You should get a prompt in the upper left corner that includes SF?.
>>Pressing Special function key 0 or 1 (IIRC) will cause it to try to boot
>>off either the internal hard drive or the floppy depending on the key.
>>If you press the wrong key and it 'hangs', just press reset and try the
>>next key.
>BTW, since I didn't get any disks with it, are they supposed to be hard
>sectored or soft sectored?
I don't remember, but I think it was soft. I think the 2200 LVP was
soft and double sided and the earlier single sided were hard sectored.
It has occured to me that on most 2200's, you could change the disk
address so if SF'0 or SF'1 don't work, you might want to try the others.
If you get to a menu, the very first one might be a boot menu. The older
2200's had most of the OS in ROM and then could load extensions boot time.
If you end up at a command prompt (usually BASIC-2, but can be changed
on newer versions of the OS), you can find out what's on the disk drive
with the "list sdct" command. Files starting with an @ are usually system
files, one of the columns will be a P (Program) or D (Data) classification
for the files. if the file type has an S (Scrathed) flag wth the type,
the files has been 'deleted'. File space is not automatically recovered.
File size and position is given in sectors, sectors are 256 bytes each.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mult...@wizvax.wizvax.net (Richard Shetron)
Date: 1998/10/12
Subject: Re: Wang 2200 Computer
In article <6uvc21$kr...@haus.efn.org>,
S. L. Wellborn <gigab...@technologist.com> wrote:
>Thanks for the info, I'll try that as soon as I get the stacks of
>Alpha Micro & Kaypro stuff out from in front of it.
>>You should get a prompt in the upper left corner that includes SF?.
>>Pressing Special function key 0 or 1 (IIRC) will cause it to try to boot
>>off either the internal hard drive or the floppy depending on the key.
>>If you press the wrong key and it 'hangs', just press reset and try the
>>next key.
>BTW, since I didn't get any disks with it, are they supposed to be hard
>sectored or soft sectored?
Depends on the drive. The real old 8" were SSSD hard sector, but all
the newer ones were DSDD soft sector.
This page created on July 24, 2007 by Micheal H. McCabe