- ECS Microsystems 4500
- ECS 4500 Tear Down
- ECS 4500 Card Summary
- ECS 4500 Bus
- ECS 8500 Video & Deflection Board
- ECS 4500 Signs of Life
- ECS 4500 Keyboard
- ECS 4500 First Boot
- ECS 4500 Disk Re-Imaging
- ECS 4500 Keyboard Update
- ECS 4500 I/O Ports
- ECS 4500 Disks & Software
Many Australian computer manufacturers have come and gone, and many of those have left remarkably few artefacts by which to be remembered. This is often the case with business oriented companies such as ECS Microsystems.
This machine belongs to Michael N from the Adelaide Retrocomputing Group. Michael is in a position where he is able to intercept treasures such as the 4500 before they depart this world.
The ECS 4500 is a CP/M machine from about 1984. It uses a Z80 processor, has 80kB of RAM, and uses two Micropolis 77 track double-density 5.25″ drives (with a curious mod that i discovered).
The ECS is notable for the way it generates characters on the CRT and for its unusual disk format. More on these to follow.
Michael rescued two of these machines when they were pretty down on their luck:
As is often the case with computers that had detachable keyboards, the keyboards had been lost.
Fortunately, they did come with some manuals:
- ECS 4000 Series Technical Manual
- ECS 4500 Operating Guide
- Time 4550 Operating Guide
These have been scanned, and Alan Laughton has uploaded them to the Microbee Technology File Repository:
http://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/repository/out/out.ViewFolder.php
Most importantly, the machines also came with disks, images of which have been added to the above repository.
Michael has been very generous to me and many other club members, and i really wanted to have a closer look, so i set about getting one operational.