SAGE Computer Technology was a computer company based in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

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. 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 Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

demanded cessation of use of the name Sage in the computer segment. * SAGE Computer Technology ::- created the Sage II and Sage IV computers based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor. * SAGE Computer *Stride Micro **MicroSage Computer Systems (a wholly owned subsidiary, 1987) ::- created the Stride 420, Stride 440, Stride 460 ( VME), 090428 entertainment.webshots.com Stride 660 and Stride 740 computers.

SAGE IV

The SAGE IV was released in 1983. 101014 thebattles.net Hardware: * Board0: CPU: MC68000 @ 8 MHz, 2× serial RS-232 ports 19.2 kbit/s, Parallel input/output (PIO) for printers,

GPIB Glycoprotein Ib (GPIb), also known as CD42, is a component of the GPIb-V-IX complex on platelets. The GPIb-V-IX complex binds von Willebrand factor, allowing platelet adhesion and platelet plug formation at sites of vascular injury. It is defici ...

, Floppy disc controller, 512 KByte DRAM. Same as in SAGE II. 090427 old-computers.com * Board1: 4× serial RS-232 ports 19.2 kbit/s, Hard disk controller, 512 KByte DRAM. * Memory consisting of 64 Kbit 150 ns memory modules.

Parity error A parity bit, or check bit, is a bit added to a string of binary code. Parity bits are a simple form of Error detection and correction, error detecting code. Parity bits are generally applied to the smallest units of a communication protocol, ...

protected setup. 090428 bp0.blogger.com * Minimum system memory is 256 KByte. 200406 sageandstride.org * Storage: 1× 5¼" 800 KByte F.D. drive. 1× 5 - 40 MByte Winchester harddisk. * Built-in multi-user BIOS. * Introduced in November 1982 * Price: $3,600

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

(for the single-floppy entry-level configuration) 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." "13 times faster than the Apple II" (when introduced). 090427 suddendisruption.blogspot.com Sage IV computers were used for the

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

of the Amiga prototype computer system "Lorraine". The Sage system got the nickname "Agony". 090427 floodgap.com Access was through an 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 UCSD Pascal is a Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCS ...

. Many other operating systems were available 090921 sageandstride.org including CP/M-68K, Idris, PDOS, HyperFORTH Plus,

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, Mirage, and MOSYS. Programming languages available included Pascal, Modula-2, C, FORTRAN77, BASIC, 68000 macro assembler, APL, BCPL, LISP and Forth.

System bus

An "m68k" bus was used up to the Stride series of computers (Sage VI). Later a VME bus was used.

NOD

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. It had an

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such ...

C interface and cost US$400.{{cite web, title=The NOD(tm) (image), url=http://bp1.blogger.com/_YdtTy7yAtcU/RypQaBGRqLI/AAAAAAAAAbI/Etk0Rdxe6ZI/s1600-h/40+Nod.jpg 090428 bp1.blogger.com

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were presented with a prototype but the project it was intended for got canceled.

References

External links

SAGE collector site

Booting Sage Computer - A Subjective Retrospective by Rod Coleman

Sage II Computer

Source code of the Sage PROMs, BIOS etc.
Defunct computer hardware companies American companies established in 1981 1981 establishments in Nevada

SAGE IV

System bus

NOD

See also

References

External links