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My late father owned two bulky and havy word processing systems manufactured in the 1980s or early 1990s, a XEROX 630 and a XEROX 645. Both had similar cases featuring an integrated Diablo 630 daisy wheel printer and two 5.25" floppy disk drives. While the XEROX 630 had a one-line LED display, the XEROX 645 came with a 9" CRT monitor on a rotating arm.

What operating system did the machines run? CP/M?

The output on the XEROX 645 monitor didn't look like MS-DOS system messages or software. So I wonder whether the machines may have run CP/M, which back then was under the hood of other word processing systems.

user3840170
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Paolo Amoroso
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    By the 1990's I would be very surprised if it were CP/M... – Jon Custer Nov 22 '21 at 18:31
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    Until January of 1990 I used an Amstrad PCW word processing system, which run CP/M. Back then the devices were still commercially available in Italy where I am. – Paolo Amoroso Nov 22 '21 at 19:10
  • That is a fair point - Wang was selling and supporting it's office products through that period, I just never encountered one since I wasn't in their target audience. And I have no idea what OS those ran either. Long-term compatibility was likely seen as a plus, so sticking with CP/M or whatever they were to begin with, was a good thing. – Jon Custer Nov 22 '21 at 19:20
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    Some Sony word processors ran CP/M under a custom GUI into the 90's as well. – mnem Nov 22 '21 at 22:32

1 Answers1

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What operating system did the machines run? CP/M?

No. It was an Xerox specific application software - like many other manufactures did during the same time.

The Memorywriter 630 was introduced in Januar 1983 based (AFAIK) on the Diabolo 630 printer unit. It was the top line model of the Xerox 610, 615, 620, 625 series of typewriters with memory to store and edit text before printing. Other than its predecessor it was fitted with 'unlimited' storage due its diskette drive. Usage as remote printer, printing terminal or printer to computer systems was possible.

The 645 was introduced in April 1985 as first of a new upgraded series with standard diskette drives and CRT. By 1985 the 645E model added an Ethernet interface to exchange files within Xerox networks - like with Star systems :))

Raffzahn
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  • I'm trying to parse the sentence "Other than its predecessor it was fitted with 'unlimited' storage due its diskette drive." which is slightly unusual English. Do you mean "Unlike its predecessors...", perhaps? Or "Like its predecessors..."? (I would guess the former, but I seem to be finding photos of Xerox MW 610 units that included a floppy drive (single instead of dual) so now I'm confused.) – FeRD Nov 23 '21 at 08:25
  • I take it back, those photos (from an online auction) SAY "Memory Writer Series 610", but clearly show a unit name-badged as a "630 Memorywriter". So now I'm once again leaning towards the former meaning, "Unlike its predecessors..." – FeRD Nov 23 '21 at 08:31