The Kaypro 16 was the first Kaypro model to use MS-DOS and Intel 8088 CPU instead of the good old CP/M - Z80 couple. It was thus a machine that represents the new direction taken by Kaypro and the technological evolution in general.
The Kaypro 16/2 is a Kaypro 16 with two 5''1/4 floppy drives and no hard drive. Both versions shipped with a large bundle of software: MS-DOS, WordStar, MailMerge, CalcStar, InfoStar, MITE, GW-Basic, tutorials and... 13 manuals!
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The following info is provided by Joe Rigdon:
The model 16 had a detachable IBM compatable keyboard, one 360 K disk drive and a 10 Meg hard drive. It also has a built in 9 inch monochrome
green monitor with a 25 x 80 display. It had an Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz. It used a 8237A DMA, an 8253-5 timer, an 8255-5 peripheral
interface, an 8259A interrupt controller, an 8284A clock and an 8288 bus controller. The standard system had a motherboard and three cards and one open expansion slot.
The mother board was socketed for 512K of memory but only 256 K was installed from the factory. The motherboard contained the circuitry that decodes RGB video into gray levels of monochrome. Also on the motherboard was a WD1002 disk controller board.
One of the cards was the processor card. It contained the keyboard interface, the clock, the timer, the bus controller, the DMA, the programmable peripheral interface and the programmable interrupt controller. It also contained a socket for a math coprocessor.
The second cards was the floppy-RAM-I/O card. It contained a DB-25S connector for the parallel port and either a DB-9S or DB-9P connector for the serial port. The third card was a color graphics card for use with an external RGB or monochrome monitor. It had a DB-9S connector for the RGB monitor and a jack for a monochrome monitor. Both used standard cables.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
At the age of 14 I was writing about video games for a local paper and was sent a Kaypro 16 to review. I was so amazed by this machine and connected to the internet for the first time on this machine. CompuServe charged $6 an hour and my parents killed me for the CompuServe bill they had to pay. It was a gateway to a great love and career in technology.
Saturday 9th December 2017
Derek A (MIAMI USA)
The Kaypro 16 was our first family computer and I logged so many hours on it that it gave me a true love for computing. Between programming and gaming I put this machine through hell and the nice thing is that I still have it after all these years. It still works too.
Tuesday 14th May 2013
Bill C (US)
I called the Kaypro 16 that I had ''My kickstart computer''. It had a 10MB (RLL) harddrive that would stick when you turned the computer off. You had to give the case a slap to get it to start spinning again.
Friday 8th April 2011
Victor Paul
NAME
Kaypro 16
MANUFACTURER
Kaypro
TYPE
Transportable
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
September 1985
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None
KEYBOARD
detachable 83-key IBM compatible keyboard, function keys and numeric keypad
CPU
Intel 8088
SPEED
4,77 Mhz
RAM
256 KB (512 KB max. on the main board)
ROM
Phoenix Rom Bios
TEXT MODES
40 or 80 columns x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
320 x 200, 640 x 200 CGA and MDA modes
COLORS
built in 9 inch monochrome green monitor
SOUND
Beeper
SIZE / WEIGHT
46 (W) x 38 (D) x 20.5 (H) cm / 16kg
I/O PORTS
1 IBM expansion slot, Parallel, Serial, external monitors (color and monochrome)
BUILT IN MEDIA
One 5''1/4 disk-drive (360k) + Second FDD or 10 MB hard-drive
