Artisan Systems DP-09 6809 Single Board Computer

The powerful DP-09 single board computer was developed by Artisan Systems Corp. in Winchester MA.

DP-09 features:

• dual 2 MHz 68B09E processors (one used for disk control subsystem)
• memory management supporting a 1 MB address space (but only 256KB DRAM on-board)
• eight 28-pin sockets for EPROM or SRAM
• 6 serial ports (6551 ACIA)
• parallel ports (6522 VIA)
• SASI interface for hard disk drives
• supports 5.25" and 8" floppy disk drives
• 50-pin expansion connector
• 8 auto-vectored interrupts for high-speed I/O
• 4-layer PCB, approx. 11.9" x 9.0"
• FLEX and OS-9 (only Level 1?) available
• U$895 assembled and tested (populated with only 64KB DRAM and 4 serial ports)

It looks like the serial ports had no on-board RS-232 drivers or receivers, so probably used separate adapter boards. Also, there is no mention of a battery-backed-up time-of-day clock, which would be a major omission for a board with so many other features. It seemed to be a very powerful system, although a bit expensive.

The only information on the DP-09 I have found so far is from ads in '68' Micro Journal, and a press release for the INOS operating system for the DP-09 on pages 49-51 in the September 1985 issue. (INOS was a multi-user multi-tasking operating system similar to UNIX, and was developed by Introl, the makers of the Introl C compiler.)

(Click on a picture for a larger version.)

Ad in October 1983 '68' Micro Journal for the DP-09 (5.1MB .png).

"FLEX" was a trademark of Technical System Consultants (TSC).
"OS-9" is a registered trademark of Microware LP.

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Last revised 2022-Jun-01 12:27 PDT.
Copyright 2019-2022 David C. Wiens.