[geeks] ColorGraphics Artstar?

David Michaud geeks at sunhelp.org
Fri Jun 1 14:57:38 CDT 2001


A number of months ago I picked up a Colorgraphics Artstar video
workstation from a TV station where I worked for a while. At the time
that it was pulled, it was working, and even when I unloaded it from my
Jeep and powered it on, it booted to console. It booted off 5.25"
diskette that was still in the drive (luckily), and it booted some
version of Unix, but I can't recall what it was. But now that it has
been sitting in my garage for a number of months through the humidity it
seems to want to bitch and complain. It drops a "Memory bad" error to
console and hangs. What is really odd about this machine is there is
*nothing* anywhere on the net about it. Not references to it, no
documentation, nothing about the company... Not on Usenet, not on
commercial or personal websites, etc. So I am sort of at a loss. The
thing weighs a ton, at least 200lbs, as the entire enclosure is
constructed from steel and the base is cast steel, about 1/2" thick.
Additionally, it is powered by a linear power supply (!). The machine is
dated 1981, and did something for the on-air weather graphics for the
station. If anyone knows *anything* about this machine, I would greatly
appreciate some leads. I have taken some pictures of it and thrown them
up here:
http://users.757.org/~cshell/artstar.html

Thanks!
-Dave




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