Motorola VME/10

The VME/10 was a compact Motorola 68010 Unix and development workstation built around VMEbus. It combined a monochrome display, Winchester disk and floppy drive in a system suitable for software engineering and embedded-system development.

By packaging Motorola’s VME architecture as a complete computer, it helped establish VMEbus beyond laboratory development systems.

Notable Features

• A built-in 15MB Winchester disk and 5.25-inch floppy made it more self-contained than earlier development systems.
• It could run VERSAdos or Unix System V and support Motorola 8-, 16- and 32-bit targets.

Historical Significance

• By packaging Motorola’s VME architecture as a complete computer, it helped establish VMEbus beyond laboratory development systems.

Collector’s Notes

• Working hard disks and original VERSAdos or Unix installation media are significant because replacements require specialised setup.
• Memory, storage, displays and expansion hardware should be documented because configurations often changed during a system’s working life.

Specifications

Technical Information
Name	Motorola VME/10
Manufacturer	Motorola
Launched	Saturday, January 1, 1983
Country	United States
CPU	Motorola MC68010
Units Sold
Form Factor	Integrated desktop workstation
Power	Internal mains supply
Networking	Optional Ethernet and serial networking
Operating System	VERSAdos or Unix System V/68
Expansion / I/O	VMEbus expansion, serial, parallel and target-development interfaces
Keyboard	Detached keyboard
Storage	15MB Winchester hard disk and approximately 500KB 5.25-inch floppy
Sound	Basic system beeper
Colours	Monochrome
Graphics	Bitmap monochrome workstation display
Display	Integrated monochrome monitor
ROM	Boot and diagnostic ROM
RAM	Typically 512KB to 2MB, configuration-dependent
CPU Speed	Typically 8 MHz