Note: the company name is "Vector Graphic Inc."; the name and the product lables do not have a plural "s". Some people including myself have used the name "Vector Graphics", in error. VG was an early S-100 microcomputer company, which produced several systems into the mid-1980's.
In 2007 one of my colleagues Andrew Lynch was working on a Vector Graphic S-100 system. He's looking for the 16-sector 100TPI formatted hard sectored diskettes it apparently used. Here's some photos of the system:
image 4476
image 4478
image 4479
By late November, he got the system running CP/M. Here's a photo of that:
image 4884.
...and here's some Intel format ROM images: Andrew said:
"I sent you the 4.3 ROMs in Hex and Bin format from a 2732 [4kb] EPROM. The 4.0c
are in a variety of formats but come from a LOW and HIGH pair of [1kb] 2708's.
You burn the LOW one first ($E000-$E3FF) and the HIGH one second
($E400-E7FF) or combine the files into an image which fits on a 2716 or one
half of a 2732."
ROM version 4.3
ROM version 4.0 high
ROM version 4.0 low
Andrew also noted there were differences among the ZCB, z80 CPU boards: "Regarding the ZCB schematics, I noticed there were differences with regard to PROM expansion and the jumpers. The initial versions were 2708 based but later ones moved to just a single 2732. There were other differences listed in the matrix at the end of the manual as well. I think there were 6 or more versions altogether."
Andrew Lynch and others have discussed with me, the Tandon TM-100-4M drives and other drive brands used by Vector Graphic. These drives are 80-track (or used as 77-track); but the tracks are spaced at 100 TPI, not the standard 96 TPI used by other 80-track drives. For more information and discussion, here's some notes and photos I did; and here's some of that discussion. The discussion includes possible use of Commodore model external floppy drives as 100TPI drives, after replacing the Commodore electronics. From some of that discussion, and from my own Web searching, I came across some Web sites with more info about Commodore's use of Tandon and Micropolis 100TPI drives. Here's my notes and some Web links.
By October 2007, Andrew Lynch announced (in comp.os.cpm) that others had established a Vector Graphic mail list discussion group. It uses "listserv" to manage the list. Use this Web link to join the list. They also have an archive of VG files and documents. (For more information you'll have to join the list to read the contents.) By December 2007, Howard Harte announced in comp.os.cpm that he and Andrew and others worked to image several VG diskettes, and to run those images on a version of the SIMH general-purpose computer simulator. The disk images and the simulator are available at a Web page archive also created by the VG discussion group.
As a consequence of work by correspondents in the VG mail list, Vector Graphic support has been added to the SIMH computer simulator for VG hardware on a simulated Z80 running CP/M. Check the SIMH site for Peter Schorn's work on SIMH for the programs.
Another VG Web site is at this site in the UK. There is a Wikipedia entry as well for Vector Graphic, with more Web links.
Vector Graphic manual list
Vector 16K Static Ram (copy), 18 pgs
8K SRAM - copy, ask
Flashwriter II user manual, rev 3, 35 pgs
Flashwriter II board manual rev 4A, 30 pgs
Z80 board assembly lang instr and user's guide, 20 pgs
64K dynamic memory board users manual rev 3A, 16 pgs
48K DRAM manual - copy, ask
8K 56K update - copy, ask
Extended Systems Monitor 4.1 (source listings), 23 pgs
8K SRAM instruction manual, 17 pgs
Z80 board user's guide, 13 pgs
12K Prom/Ram schematic (2708s), 2 pgs
Prom/Ram schematic (1702s), 2 pgs
SCOPE user manual, 62 pgs
technical bulletins - copy, ask
RAID reference manual, 1.1A, 20 pgs
"CP/M an Introduction to a Microcomputer Operating System", Ed Scott, 22 pgs
CP/M 2 ZSM Assembler User's Manual, ver 2.5A, 1980, 12 pgs
RAID USer's Manual, Ver 1.1, 1980, 36 pgs
SCOPE USer's Manual, Ver 1.6A, 1980, 74 pgs
Mainframe User's Manual (cabinet, power supply, wiring) 15 pgs
Motherboard User's Manual, 12 pgs
System overview manual, (system B and B+S3), rev A 1980, 20 pgs
PROM RAM III USer's Manual (copy), Rev 1-1-A, 1979, 42 pgs
64K Dynamic RAM Manual, rev 3A, 1980, 16 pgs
Tandon 5-1/4" floppy drive manual (TM100 drive) 104 pgs
w/schematics & parts, troubleshooting, more.
(see floppy drive manuals for more
Mindless Terminal user's manual, rev 0-b, 1979, 30 pgs
includes Ball Brothers TV90/120 schematic
includes Keytronic keyboard schematics
Mindless Terminal user's manual, rev 0-b, 1979, 40 pgs
includes C. ITOH CIQ-9 and CIQ-12 monitor schematic
includes Keytronic keyboard schematics
ZCB Single Board Computer, rev 1B 1980, w/1981 update 56 pgs
ZCB Single board computer, as above, PDF copy, 52 pgs
Safestor Hardware, rev A, 1982, 46 pgs
Technical Advisory:
Jumpering of 5-1/4" hard disk drive, Nov 2 1981, 2 pgs
Jumpering of 5-1/4" floppy drive, Nov 9 1981, 2 pgs
Jumpering of 5-1/4" floppy drive, Nov 9 1981, 2 pgs
Upgrade timeshar sept 1981, 2 pages of three
Port Map (list of I/O addresses), rev a 1981, 4 pgs
Bitstreamer II User's Manual, rev 1A, 1980, 52 pgs
Bitstreamer I/O Board manual, 22 pgs
8" floppy disk controller manual, rev 1A 1981, 38 pgs
Micropolis Disk Controller Board manual (by Vector), rev A 1980, 50 pgs
5 by 10 inch circuit board
also Technical Advisory, Feb 1981, rev 0 to rev 1 update, 5 pgs
also Technical Advisory, Feb 1981, rev 1 modifications
Z-80 Board User's Manual, rev 2A, 1979, 22 pgs
48K Dynamic Memory Board, rev 3 1979, 18 pgs
Flashwriter II User's Guide, rev 3 1979, source code, 60 pgs
2800 System overview - copy, ask
3030 System overview - copy, ask
Vector 3 hardware manual - copy, ask
Vector "Dual Mode Disk Controller Card": FD/HD hard and floppy drives
Engineering docs, rev 2.0, Feb 1981, 62 pages, copy.
Vector Graphic Systems Using M-DOS (Micropolis Disk Operating System)
M-DOS System ver 8.5, User's Guide Rev b, 1979, 56Kb systems
INtroduction, index - 22 pgs
General Info - 13 pgs
Installation, peripherals, disks - 24 pgs
Startup and operations - 6 pgs
MDOS (MIcropolis DOS) - 42 pgs, rev 7
Lineedit - 12 pgs
ZSM assembler - 12 pgs
utilities - 26 pgs
Micropolis BASIC - 50 pgs
Disk File I/O - 26 pgs
Disk subsystem theory - 40 pgs w/sources
Appendices - about 60 pgs. References all the above.
MDOS and MBASIC quick reference sheet, 2 pgs (refers to MDOS section above
MZOS - Vector MZ Operating System & Utilities, ver 1.5 1978, 32 pgs
driver sources for printers, Northstar to NZ disk conversion
