This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The talk page may contain suggestions. (June 2022)
|
SAGE Computer Technology was a computer company based in Reno, Nevada, United States. It was founded in 1981 by Rod Coleman, Bill Bonham and Bob Needham; it went through several name changes. The change from Sage computer came about when "Sage Software" in Maryland demanded cessation of use of the name Sage in the computer segment.[1]
The SAGE IV was released in 1983.[3] Hardware:
The SAGE managed multitasking with six serial ports in real time with 1 MByte of RAM in 1983. It was used by scientists and engineers for more than ten years when it was popular, "running over 10 years with zero admin, and maybe even zero reboot."[4] "13 times faster than the Apple II" (when introduced).[1]
Sage IV computers were used for the development of the Amiga prototype computer system "Lorraine". The Sage system got the nickname "Agony".[7]
Access was through an 80 × 25 serial video terminal. Graphics capability was possible with the addition of a third-party colour graphics system from Robinson Systems which plugged directly into the Sage 68000 bus and provided output compatible with a range of colour monitors (e.g., Cotron Sword, Electrohome 1301).
The included operating system was the UCSD p-System. Many other operating systems were available[8] including CP/M-68K, Idris, PDOS, HyperFORTH Plus, BOS, TRIPOS, Mirage, and MOSYS. Programming languages available included Pascal, Modula-2, C, FORTRAN77, BASIC, 68000 macro assembler, APL, BCPL, LISP and Forth.
An "m68k" bus was used up to the Stride series of computers (Sage VI). Later a VME bus was used.
NOD is a head-motion operated mouse device that Wilbur Harvey and Rod came up with one afternoon in about 1983. It works by putting a special reflective pencil behind your ear and a quadrature detector that tracks its movement. The point was to be able to use the keyboard while you used the mouse cursor.[1] It had an RS-232C interface and cost US$400.[9] Apple Inc. were presented with a prototype but the project it was intended for got canceled.[1]
