Dick Smith Electronics CAT An Australian Apple II quasi-compatible, pictured here with a couple of extre peripherals attached and its nice high resolution monitor. 57Ękbyte JPEG file. Make and Model Dick Smith CAT (this is the same machine as the Video Technology Laser-3000. Released 1984 CPU 6502A, 2 MHz or 1 MHz, chosen by software (a register inthe $C000 space). The clock would automatically slow down during disk access to allow correct operation. ROM 32 kbytes, containing Microsoft BASIC (24 kbytes) and System Monitor (8 kbytes presumably). RAM 64 kbytes. Case Medium, beige and cream plastic case. The dark beige top is bordered in cream plastic. There is a black `cat' label at the top left of the case and ventilation grills cover the rest of the top. The keyboard looks nice with a full complement of dark and light grey keys (and a couple of orange ones, too). There's also a numeric keypad. Keyboard Full sized, serious-looking typewriter keyboard with 81 full-stroke keys, including cursor keys, a numeric keypad (that includes the cursor keys at its top row) and eight one-and-a-half width function keys at the top of the alphanumeric keyboard. The function keys support 24 functions (presumably using Shift and Control). Display Two classic text modes are available, 80 x 24 and 40 x 24. The maximum colour graphics resolution is 560 x 192 with individually addressable pixels. I don't know much else, but, since the machine is Apple II compatible, I guess it supports a maximum of 16 colours. See the Apple II entry for more information. Audio Four channels with a note range of six octaves and a channel of white noise. The sound comes from a built-in speaker with volume control (16 levels). The omnipresent AY-3-8910 was used for this purpose. Input/Output Tape player/recorder connector. Joystick port. Centronics parallel port. Bus expansion interface Expansion cartridge socket Connector for RS-232 serial adaptor Composite monitor connector. Trivia Scott McLauchlan writes: ``One of it's major selling points was that it was about 90% software compatible with the Apple II (improved to about 98% with the addition of an optional emulator cartridge).'' He also mentions the CAT Net Controller, ``used to set up a classroom network of CATs. You needed one CAT Net Controller, one CAT Net Master RS232 Interface (not the same as the RS-232C Serial Adaptor) for the teacher's computer, and one slave cartridge for each student's computer. The blurb in the Dick Smith Catalogue said: `Total control of communication in the classroom! The teacher can simultaneously download data and information to up to 16 students (each with their own CAT) and can then selectively `talk' to individual students -- via the computer. Any slave terminal may request help from the teacher: it will even beep the teacher to alert them. All this at high speed -- 16 kbytes in just approx 20 secs. There's no degradation in performance as additional slaves are connected -- and the cabling is very simple: no costly installation here! A unique `queue' facility allows multiple student enquiries -- and because the slave cartridge only used 16 bytes of user RAM it leaves maximum space for working.' ``As you can see, the CAT was strongly targeted as an educational computer.'' Leslie Ayling writes: ``It was manufactured by VideoTech of Hong Kong. There it was badged as a `Laser 3000'. ``There was support on the motherboard for a daughter board that would allow up to 256 kbytes main memory. Each of the four 16 kbyte banks of main memory could be selected from any one of the 16 banks that made up the 256 kbytes total. Four addresses in the $C000 area were used for the bank switching arrangement. ``The extended graphics modes made use of this bank switching feature, notably the 560x192 double resolution mode. Also the 24 kbyte BASIC ROM switched parts of itself into the $8000-$BFFF space. ``The 256 kbyte memory board never appeared but several were made by enthusiasts.'' ``The `Emulator' Cartdridge was nothing more than a 16 kbyte Language equivalent. Applesoft Basic could be loaded in to it to allow greater compatibility as many machine language games an other programs used routines which didn't exist in the 24 kbyte BASIC in ROM.'' Emphasis Education. Net Resources Wouldn't think so. More Pictures A picture of the CAT's peripherals: (1) Dual joysticks; (2) Apple II emulator cartridge; (3) RF Modulator; (4) Disk Controller; (5) Disk Drive; (6) RS-232 Serial Adaptor (110 to 9600 baud). The CAT Net Controller.