This page last updated June 07 2009.
The information I have about Salota, a German S-100 system manufacturer, comes from Rolf Harrmann's Web site, where he has images and PDF's of Salota products. Additionally, Rolf sold some blank Salota boards in 2009 - check his site for details. From those documents, it looks like Salota produced S-100 cards at least into 1980 and 1981. I also offer copies of those documents, listed below.
Here's a press release about Salota, from COMPUTERWOCHE magazine Number 16 from 20 April 1979. I translated it from German using Google.
NUREMBERG (pi) - The Salota GmbH & Co. KG, a newcomer in the computer business, show at the Hanover Fair a machine approach, "that provides new approaches and character sets." Salota advertising says: "A system that is so adaptable is that it muskelprotzigen, inflexible standard types is superior." This is the computer system "MFC 512", a "modular expandable computer system from German manufacturing." Its capacity can be adjusted for each user's problems. The expansion takes place with the S 100-bus system by inserting the appropriate cards. Cards of all known S-100-bus producers can be used. Through standard interfaces, this approach also works for the peripheral devices. The Salota computer system is based on the Z 80 A microprocessor, usable for both for commercial as well as technical and scientific problems. At the same time it serves also for word processing.
Salota MFC 512 is provided as a portable desktop case or a rack version. The table version contains the power supply housing and a fully stocked bus connector board with 10 options. The housing is prepared for the installation of up to three mini-BASF floppy drives. The version for small and hobby users consists of the CPU card, at least one memory card, a I/0 card with a parallel interface to connect the keyboard, and three interfaces for use by ordinary cassette recorders and a 24-V interface. A video card with modulator allows any ordinary TV without a change as a data display device, with 24 lines of 80 characters in length. In the fully equipped version, the table Salota housing has 64K bytes of memory and three BASF Minifloppies with its own controller. Connected is an industrial data display device with 24 rows and 80 characters per line and a dot matrix printer with 132 character write width as hardcopy output.
For the Salota MFC office desk 512 version are the same details as for the desktop case. The slot machine has plug of 18 possibilities. In the peripheral slot of this execution can alternatively floppy, mini-cassettes or floppy drives installed. The memory cards are software selectable. This gives us a maximum memory expansion of 512 K, although the CPU is only directly addresses 64K. The program's language in the tape version are 80-Z assembler or BASIC interpreter. In the floppy version can be an additional expansion to compiler Basic, Fortran IV, Cobol or Pascal can be used. Moreover, in Hanover Salota his tape-cassette player for the 3800 data collection, interim storage and playback, the read / write speed of 10 inches per second is.
For more information contact: Salota Lothar Sachsse GmbH & Co. KG, Raabstr. 24, 8500 Nuremberg, CeBIT (Hall 18), Booth 404
--end--
Rolf posted in comp.os.cpm in Feb 2008, that images of the Salota boards and manuals were available. Bob [Stevens] in Wisconsin said: "That first card [a Z80 CPU board] looks strangely like my North Star Horizon ZPB-A2 CPU Card. The only difference I can see is that it doesn't have the Printed logo on the Lower portion."
Allison Parent said: "No doubt about it the top board is a NorthStar ZPB, I have one infront of me. It's 100% correlation right down to the optional parts for 2708 EPROM and on the right the two sockets and the SIP resistor for front panel use. It would not surprise me if N* private-labled some of their production for others. As to the printed logo I have two that do not have that silkscreened on. What's missing is the logo along the left-most trace "Northstar Computers Inc C77 USA". The bottom [ROM/RAM] board while very similar to a PROM II is definitely different. It does look like it's configurable for mixed ram/rom."
Z80 CPU card (clone of NorthStar ZPB series), 11 pages (GERMAN)
I/O 2+1 card, 14 pgs (GERMAN)
Mixed Memory card (RAM/ROM), 2 pgs schematic and layout (GERMAN)
BDE2-SETZTEIL (power), 2 pgs schematic and layout(GERMAN)
UHR I/O (several I/O lines out, in?), 2 pgs schematic and layout(GERMAN)
KALE ADAPTER, 2 transistor board, 2 pgs schematic and layout(GERMAN)
(GERMAN)
BDE-2 Tastatur, simple keypad, schematic only, 1 page.
Contact information:
Copyright © 2009 Herb Johnson