Last modified on 2 September 2006, at 07:17

Vortex Computersysteme

Revision as of 07:17, 2 September 2006 by SpaceRat (Talk | contribs) (The Vortex disc drive controller)

Vortex Logo

Vortex Computersysteme from Neckarsulm, Germany, was a hardware and software manufacturer for the Amstrad CPC. It was founded in 1984 by Mr. Michel and his brother, Mr. Majer and Mrs. Armbruster. Vortex now is called ICP (Intelligent Computer Peripherals) an is an Adaptec Company, specialized in RAID-Controllers.

F1

F1-X disc drive
F1/D disc drive

A 5.25" disc drive. 80 tracks and 708KiB. Sold as F1/S with controller, F1-Z without controller as second drive and F1/D with controller and two drives. The disc drive also was available as an extended version, called F1-XRS, which also contains a RS232 interface, and F1-X, which can be updated with a RS232 interface. Disc operation system VDOS 2.0 on ROM included.

Manual can be found here F1

M1

A 3.5" disc drive. 80 tracks and 1.4MB. Sold as M1/S with controller, M1-Z without controller as second drive and M1/D with controller and two drives. The disc drive also was available as an extended version, called M1-XRS, which also contains a RS232 interface, and M1-X, which can be updated with a RS232 interface. Disc operation system VDOS 2.0 on ROM included.

The Vortex disc drive controller

The Vortex disc controler was similar to Amstrads own controller. It used the same controler chip, the NEC765.

SP

RAM expansion card. Not compatible to the dk'tronics memory expansion. Sold in different sizes of RAM as SP 64, SP 128, SP 256, SP 320 and SP 512 (resulting in a maximum RAM size of the computer of 576KiB). Usable under BASIC and CP/M and offering a RAM disc.

Vector

A maths program to print functions or to find a function which follows given points. Released 1986.

Para Plus

A program to transfer data Vortex Para Plus

VDOS

The disc operating system VDOS for use with Vortex drives

Weblinks

Vortex/ICP-Homepage