Wang 2200

[10] Unlike some other desktop computers, such as the HP 9830, it had a cathode-ray tube (CRT) in a cabinet that also included an integrated computer-controlled cassette tape storage unit and keyboard.

The 2200 series evolved from a singular desktop computer into larger systems able to support up to 16 workstations which utilized commercial disk technologies that appeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

[12] The disk subsystems could be attached to up to 15 computers giving a theoretical upper limit of 240 workstations in a single cluster.

The later C model added a small number of additional commands, including simple error handling.

This meant user programs including "machine code" continued to run on the new CPUs in spite of them having completely different instructions.

[14] Wang claimed to support "High-speed printers (up to 600 lpm), IBM diskette and 9-Track magnetic tape compatibility, telecommunications and special instrument controllers.

BASIC was implemented in 256 KB of static RAM loaded from disk, and used an incremental compiler rather than an interpreter as in previous versions.

In the 1970s, Wang 2200 computers were extensively used by Gosplan and Goskomstat, the main Soviet planning and statistical agencies.

The fear of backdoors in the Western hardware led to the reverse engineering of the original system and the development of the Iskra-226 [ru] a 100% binary-compatible clone.

Wang 2200 Basic-2 code can run on PCs and Unix systems using compilers and runtime libraries sold by Niakwa[19] or Kerridge.

A 1974 advertisement for the Wang 2200 Computer