NAME  

Sorcerer

MANUFACTURER  

Exidy

TYPE  

Home Computer

ORIGIN  

USA

YEAR  

1978

END OF PRODUCTION 

1982

BUILT IN LANGUAGE 

Basic interpreter on ROM

KEYBOARD  

Full-stroke 79 key with numeric keypad

CPU  

Zilog Z80A

SPEED  

2.1 MHz

RAM  

8 KB (up to 64 KB)

VRAM  

2 KB

ROM  

8 KB

TEXT MODES 

32 lines of 64 characters

GRAPHIC MODES  

128 programmable graphics characters

COLORS  

Monochrome

SOUND  

External speaker connected to parallel port

SIZE / WEIGHT 

48.3 (W) x 32.8 (D) x 9.7 (H) cm / 1.8 Kg

I/O PORTS 

S100 Expansion Bus, Parallel interface, Video out, Serial interface, Tape recorder

OS  

CP/M

POWER SUPPLY 

Built-in PSU

PERIPHERALS  

S100 Expansion Bus box, Floppy Disk Drive, Tape Recorder

PRICE  

$895

 

Exidy Sorcerer

Exidy Sorcerer

Exidy Sorcerer was a computer launhed in 1978 and used programs on 16KB ROM packs encased in 8-track tape cartridges. It shipped with Microsoft MBASIC and a development tools assembler / editor ROM pack. A word processor ROM pack was also available.

Exidy initially provided an expansion chassis that would accept up to 6 S-100 cards, and a Micropolis dual-


disk quad-density 16-sector hard sector floppy disk drive was available. These disks would hold up to 330kb of data on a single side. A later version of the expansion chassis also included a green-screen monitor and two floppy drives, but may have held only 4 S-100 slots. A standard serial port was available, but shared internal resources with the keyboard which made baud rates higher than 300 a problem. The Pennywhistle 300-baud modem was often provided with this machine. The MECA digital "intelligent" tape drive could also be used.

Dutch CompuData imported the Sorcerer into the Europe. When sales in the US dropped because of the heavy competition in home computers market, Exidy Inc. stopped production of the Sorcerer. CompuData then produced the original Sorcerer in Holland in exactly the same configuration, but with the CompuData Systems Trademark for the European market.

EXIDY Inc. of Richardson, Texas, finally closed the doors on March 26th 1982.