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Altos 5-15 A/D
IBM PC XTLaser 50 Computer
| Description | |
| Manufacturer | Morrow Designs |
| Model | Micro Decision |
| Date Announced | 1982 |
| Date Canceled | Unknown |
| Number Produced | Thousands to tens of thousands |
| Country of Origin | USA |
| Price | From $1,200 on up ($1,600 for the MD-2 shown) |
| Current Value | $50-$200 |
| Specifications | |
| Processor | Zilog Z80 |
| Speed | 4 MHz |
| RAM | 64K |
| ROM | 2K |
| Storage | 1-4 200K 5.25" floppy drives of varying capacities, various hard drives up to 40 MB |
| Expansion | None |
| Bus | N/A |
| Video | Character/terminal based |
| I/O | Parallel, Serial |
| OS Options | CP/M |
| Notes | The Morrow Micro Decision was George Morrow's entry designed to compete with business machines of its day. It was cheaper than the typical S-100 based CP/M system since it was simpler. It was cheaper than the IBM PC and XT as well as the floundering Apple III Computer but it offered nothing particularly new to compete. I was priced similarly to the Osborne 1 and Kaypro machines, but it didn't offer the option of portability. |
| Related Items in Collection | All of the original software and documentation as well as a dot matrix printer. |
| Related Items Wanted | Additional software |
The Morrow Micro Decision was an excellent CP/M computer running a single-board Z80 that just came a bit too late. By the time these were being sold the IBM PC was taking the world by storm and the landscape of personal and business computing was beginning to change forever.
The Morrow Micro Decision was an elegantly designed system that incorporated a single Z80 based motherboard and little else.
The MD-2 in my collection is in exceptionally good physical and functional condition, as can be seen above.
Although the form-factor looks like a typical PC the monitor and keyboard are, in fact, a dumb terminal while the chassis contains the computer itself. Almost any other serial dumb terminal will suffice for running the machine and at least two can, in fact, be installed.
The software that came with the unit includes Microsoft BASIC, BAZIC (a Northstar compatible BASIC) and a variety of business applications including word processing, spell check and spreadsheet programs.
The manuals for the machine, terminal and software were also included.
This Morrow Micro Decision and all of the associated software and documentation were donated by Richard Montanye.
hi, i´m very glad i found this site! nice pics and interesting history about morrows. my experience on md is little,and a bit sad: it´s some years ago (maybe 1990) when i bought a used micro decision unit without any description nor terminal in a radio electronics store for the supply (dc 12+5volts) for my wrecked 386sx. it wasnt powerful enought so i put it back. started it up with terminal emulation on my amiga2000 via the serial interface, and it worked pretty! unfortunately i have damaged the mbr by my own stupidness ( lost the master boot record of the hdd) when typing some commands- sort of ini-tialize or sys-- command, cant remember exactly.:-((
if anyone has an bootable diskette (5,25) or any other idea how i can restore the morrow - it would be wonderful! this one has dbase, wordperfect starcalc and some other apps! i would share it with you, if you can help me :-)
oli near dortmund, germany
email: oli_dot_stein_at_gmx_dot_de
I worked with some of the old Morrows back in the early 80s in a government job. They were good machines based on a great old 8 bit microprocessor the Zilog Z80 (I cut my computer teeth on the 8 bit stuff 8080/85, 6800/6809, 6502 etc). I also enjoyed working with all the CP/M based software of that era.
I think there may have been an MD10 (???) which had a 10MB HDD (?). That was a neat machine which I developed some dBase software for (Ashton Tate). I was spoilt when I got my PC XT ( 20MB Seagate HDD ) later but then things have changed out of site since then.
The first pc I ever worked on was a Morrow. This
was in the mid 1980s. It was a revelation to me to
go from an electric typewriter to a computer
(especially as I was in grad school.) My then
boy-friend (who loved to re-program the function
keys on the machine [usually without telling me])
and I used to go around to Morrow swaps-meets in
the San Francisco Bay Area. The Morrows were
tough as nails and people would buy/sell/barter
parts on a regular basis. It was a small but
friendly community of Morrow-junkies. I missed
the Morrows (and the junkies) when it all ended.
The boy friend, interestly, went the way of the
Mac afterward. He buys the newest every other
year or so. I went pc, with a sidetrack into
Sun's and UNIX. I tend to work on machines put
together from other projects--kind of a left-over
from the Morrow days.
I just fired up my old Morrow w/HDD and it still works and I was going to put it on Ebay. I do have all the books and Software but not sure if it all good. Is anyone interested now ? Or see you on ebay about 3/1/06
I too have an old Morrow in my basement. I'm
sure it still works, and I even have a new Wyse
60 terminal/keyboard that I used. I am looking
to give it to someone rather than trash it. Any
ideas? I also have all the original software -
Wordstar was great!
Neal in Toronto.
Fantastic! I pulled one of these out of the trash 5 years ago and it's been sitting in my parents' attic for lack of a keyboard. Coincidentally it's sitting next to an old DEC VT125, so the next time I'm in the 'States I'll definitely mate those two up and see if it's still a working unit!
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