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:

 

http://www.wang2200.org/

 

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

http://paleoferrosaurus.com/

 

 

 

 

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