Talk:RM plc/Archives/2019

Research Machines Data logger - RM101 & RM102

Around the mid 80's - RM developed and produced a Data Logger called the RM101 and 102. They were primarily designed for UK Education Markets and were a spectacular fail for the company. Only a small number were ever produced and sold. This part of RM's history seems to have been airbrushed over. Tony Scott was the project manager, later re-assigned to the Nimbus PC-186 project. Tony was the one who came up with the name Nimbus. Tony was a glider pilot and those who knew him claimed that the PC-186 was named after his favorite Glider, the Schempp-Hirth Nimbus. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.168.229.226 (talk) 13:19, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Interesting information. How was this "airbrushed", though? Was it deliberately removed from Wikipedia? Feel free to add it to the article, with supporting citations of course. Kind regards

Guffydrawers (talk) 16:08, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

I was working at RM at the time, sales and marketing were then located at building in Between Towns Rd Oxford. The RM101/102 development team were housed next door. Nothing about the RM101/102 is contained within the RM history timeline, nor can I find anything on the web that relates to the product at all. No pictures or articles.

UPDATE: Information regarding the RM102 is available here Rm-nimbus-museum (talk) 14:22, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

I’d like to think that the story about naming the Nimbus was correct, but the official marketing response was that it represented a halo around an object due to ice crystals in the atmosphere. I eventually ended up being the product manager for the Nimbus PC-186, so know a reasonable amount about the history of the system. For instance it was originally going to be DR DOS based and the switch to MS DOS was very late in the day from a release perspective. Also the Piconet serial bus, the original concept was for the system to effectively only have one port – a Piconet port. Peripherals like printer ports, keyboards etc. would all daisy chain off this one port. A sort of USB port – but years ahead of the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.168.229.226 (talk) 14:04, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

Around the mid 80's - RM developed and produced a Multi purpose microprocessor controlled measuring instrument called the RM101 (and an upgraded version RM102). The RM101 was capable of measuring low voltages and datalogging and could be configured as a Voltmeter, Humidity Meter, ECG monitor etc depending on the probes used. They were designed by the newly formed Instrumentation Division of the company, under the leadership of Iain Duncan, to investigate non educational markets and were designed and built in record time for the company. The Instrumentation Division was discontinued to enable Iain to take over as Project Manager of the NGC ( New Generation Computer) which later became the Nimbus Computer. RM recognized the need for a 16 bit computer as a replacement for the 8-bit 480z and needed to move quickly to match the competition. The choice of Iain Duncan as the project manager, was justified as the Nimbus project came in under budget and in time to establish RM as a significant player in the educational computing market. Iain suggested the name Nimbus. and it was accepted by the board as all other suggested names hovered around fruit at the time and the board could not be sure another PC start-up would not choose the same one. Iain was a glider pilot and was hoping the success of the Nimbus would finance the purchase of a Schempp-Hirth Nimbus glider - which did in fact occur. Duncan). The RM101 was Around 240x 200x 80 high and had a small 2 x16 LCD panel and a minimal number of buttons for control. It had a dark grey Plastic front panel designed by john Twydell Associates of Tunbridge wells and only 50 were made and sold, although one was bought by the emergent National Instruments and may have influenced some of their subsequent designs. ( this paragraph updated and corrected by Iain Duncan).

I was working at RM at the time, sales and marketing were then located at building in Between Towns Rd Oxford. The RM101/102 development team were housed next door. Nothing about the RM101/102 is contained within the RM history timeline, nor can I find anything on the web that relates to the product at all. No pictures or articles. ( The Instrumenation Division and NGC team were housed in the new extension at Mill Street Oxford - iain )

I’d like to think that the story about naming the Nimbus was correct, but the official marketing response was that it represented a halo around an object due to ice crystals in the atmosphere. I eventually ended up being the product manager for the Nimbus PC-186, so know a reasonable amount about the history of the system. For instance it was originally going to be DR DOS based and the switch to MS DOS was very late in the day from a release perspective. Also the Piconet serial bus, the original concept was for the system to effectively only have one port – a Piconet port. Peripherals like printer ports, keyboards etc. would all daisy chain off this one port. A sort of USB port – but years ahead of the time. The original concept for the OS of the NGC was to be UNIX but these were changeable times with and Windows was coming so the software team under Bill Mansfield and Richard Girling rapidly reported software from origanal CPM 86 to Dos to Windows 1.0 (iain). the piconet Port was the brainchild of Mike Fisher ( co-owner of RM) and was indeed a foreunner of USB - iain was later part of the USB standard panel.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.101.122.109 (talk) 00:18, 18 December 2016 (UTC)