Dietz Computersysteme

















This page is dedicated to one cool computer, the system "Dietz 621", built by the German computer engineering factory "Dietz Computersysteme" between 1975 and 1980.

I got the hardware you see on the left in about 1986 (while all may friends were playing games on the Commodore C64 :-) and this is the first computer I learned programming on. The main reason was that there were no games existing on this machine, so I had to write my own :) Stay tuned!

Overview

The system ran the Dietz "Time Sharing Operating System" (TSOS), which means it was possible to attach several terminals to the head unit and processing time was shared amongst them. There were other operating systems for special purposes, like one designed for "real-time" applications, which means the time was not shared amongst users but the special design of the Dietz 621 enabled executing severel prioritized levels (todo: rework).

I programmed mostly in C-Basic (Dietz Commercial Basic), a basic dialect that was compiled into binary code before running the application. When I switch to the IBM PC in 1989 using Microsofts GW-Basic, it really seemed like a step back in time comprared to C-basic :-)

Offical fan-page:

http://www.dietz-computersysteme.de