RE: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair working for the French??
As always Sir Clive was a precursor : others take advantage of his technology. Mergetwo C5 (4 wheels) and add a motor and you get something that can earn money ;-) -Message d'origine-De: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]Envoyé: mardi 9 avril 2002 14:27À: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Objet: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair working for the French??I know that Sir Clive's skills lay in other places other than marketing, but has he sold out to the french I wonder??Just that I saw a TV advert last night for a Citreon C5 :-ORich Mellor RWAP Software7 Common Road, Kinsley, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF9 5JRTEL: 01977 614299http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rwapsoftware
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair working for the French??
On Tue, 9 Apr 2002 at 11:04:48, ZN wrote: (ref: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) On 09/04/02 at 14:31 Claude Mourier 00 wrote: Clive Sinclair working for the French?? I know that Sir Clive's skills lay in other places other than marketing, but has he sold out to the french I wonder?? Just that I saw a TV advert last night for a Citreon C5 As always Sir Clive was a precursor : others take advantage of his technology. Merge two C5 (4 wheels) and add a motor and you get something that can earn money ;-) Citroen C5 has nothing to do with Sinclair, though I am sure their marketing department must have been caugh unaware by the history of that 'name' in the UK. The Cit C5 is named after it's pre (pre-pre-pre) decessor from the 1920s. Now if you don't mind, stop knocking down my favorite car manufacturer ;-) who actually has a lot in common with the QL, in philosophical ways. Although, I will be the first to acknowledge, Citroens can be a pain in the a... khm, neck when there is a problem, but when it all works, it's amazing. Just like with the QL, where you have to seek converts to computing in a better way, with Citroen you get to preach that there are better ways to drive around on 4 (and actually, even 3 - some will work without one rear) wheels! Oddly enough on the way back from the recent Eindhoven QL show, a Citroen in front of us had a flat tyre and diesel was pouring out of it. I pumped it up for him - but I see he could have driven without it (8-)# Great when they go well of course (8-)# -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:252/67) +44(0)1442-828255 tony@surname,demon.co.uk http://www.firshman.demon.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair working for the French??
ZN writes: computing in a better way, with Citroen you get to preach that there are better ways to drive around on 4 (and actually, even 3 - some will work without one rear) wheels! Dont I know! Once, driving with a friend in his ancient Citroen D model in Africa somewhere, I saw this single wheel overtaking us on the left. We only realised it was ours later, when we stopped to take a look at it! Per
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes B. Wrong. It refers to a bigger microdrive like device, with magnetic tape. The same infinite tape trick as in microdrive, no rewind needed. It was the alternative to floppy. (or the evolution of classical tape). ZN wrote:- Bzzz - you are both wrong! First, it was not a tape. Do not confuse WM with something that was a tape, loop tapes similar to microdrives just much larger (they looked know, they never made it to the QL, and that's a good thing too. Bzzz.. Spot on, Nasta. I still have a wafadrive with my Spectrum and several dozen tapes. They were made by Rotronics, and I bought mine new. Still have the original packaging and the lot. They are a little smaller than a standard audio tape, in fact they were often sold in blank audio cassette boxes instead of a custom made container for them. I even have some commercial software I bought on wafadrive!! So, what was ( is ) the performance like ... ? Keep the whole lot as you have a 'collectors' item :-) -- Malcolm Cadman
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
On 17 Oct 2001, at 20:07, Malcolm Cadman wrote: Also, do not forget that the first microdrives were intended to be only the start of a whole range of innovative new ways for mass storage. Clive subsequently 'lost' a lot of his 'millions' investing in plant and research to produce new devices that would have developed and owned, and sold to the world. Wafer memory... wolfgang - www.wlenerz.com
RE: Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
Wafer memory... Wafer Scale Integration I believe he referred to it as at the time. An ambitious project back then (maybe even today) because it requires flawless wafer sized pieces of silicon. Even though silicon is the earth's most abundant (or second or whatever) element, the cost of fabrication of silicon integrated circuits is related to the yield of working chips from each wafer. Even some of those that fail to make the grade can sometimes pass at lower clock rates and can be marked and sold as lower spec. With wafer scale, it's all or nothing. The rejection rate must be huge, and that is probably what ate most of his investment in plant - the production of flawless silicon wafers. Ian. -Original Message- From: wlenerz Sent: 19 October 2001 14:29 To: ql-users Cc: wlenerz Subject: Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair On 17 Oct 2001, at 20:07, Malcolm Cadman wrote: Also, do not forget that the first microdrives were intended to be only the start of a whole range of innovative new ways for mass storage. Clive subsequently 'lost' a lot of his 'millions' investing in plant and research to produce new devices that would have developed and owned, and sold to the world. Wafer memory... wolfgang - www.wlenerz.com Visit our website at http://www.ubswarburg.com This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. This message is provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any securities or related financial instruments.
Re: Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
[EMAIL PROTECTED] makes some magical things to make me read } Wafer memory... } Wafer Scale Integration I believe he referred to it as at the time. B. Wrong. It refers to a bigger microdrive like device, with magnetic tape. The same infinite tape trick as in microdrive, no rewind needed. It was the alternative to floppy. (or the evolution of classical tape).
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
Even with current low cost silicon, there is still a high rejection rate. That, as was said , cannot be afforded with a bigger chip. Actually, bigger chips increase the number of rejects incredibly. The reason is very simple: the basic idea behind chips in most cases relies on all chip components being operational, i.e. there is no fault tolerance. There are some exceptions, though, see below. Take a silicon wafer. Now immagine there are specks of unusable silicon, say a couple of um across randomly distributed with a density of one on every 2 square cm. There are two factors that govern the yield: 1) size of geometry - if this is than the size of the anomaly, there is a good chance an anomaly will only produce a degraded component, not a completely faulty one. However, today, almost all geometry used is far smaller than the sizes of the anomalies, so we run into problem: 2) size of the chip. Obviously, if the chip size is 2cm square, statistically ALL of them will have a fault, i.e. yield will be 0. As the chip gets smaller, somewhere around half of the 2cm square area, the yield suddenly goes up quickly. For very small chips, the number of failures approaches area_of_anomaly/area_of_wafer * 100 in %, i.e. the yield becomes virtually 100%. This is why small signal transistors, having a very small die, cost pennies, but a CPU that has a die of 100 times the size, does not cost 100 pennies - all sorts of additional processing are necessary to even get 0 yield on these, and it has to be payed for. In reality, anomalies on silicon are not the only problem, there is a vast number of different pollutants that can affect the process of making a chip, but the basic behaviour is the same. This is why chip prices are extremely dependant on chip size, and why all the manufacturers try to squeeze the size of the die down as much as possible. This problem first became evident with memory, as these were traditionally the largest chips. For a long time it held back the jump from 64k bits to 256k bits for dynamic RAM. Finally, someone figured out that providing extra RAM 'rows' that were programmable will include a dose of fault tolerance. However, this came at a price - traditionally, with a shrinkage of geometry, comes a corresponding shrinkage of delays, i.e. speed increases. But since the 256kb DRAM needed 'programmable' rather than fixed row decoders, some of the speed benefit was lost, so the 256kb DRAM chips were of the same speed grade as 64kb chis available earlyer, so one speed grade jump was 'missed'. Today all memory produced has some fault tolerance, it is tested and then appropriately programmed at the factory. Furthermore, even CPUs have a dose of fault tolerance. It is mostly evident with chips that come in different falvours, such as different speed grades, or cache sizes (an asside: being memory, most caches in todays big CPUs also have 'extra' memory cells to provide fault tolerance, or, in some cases, error detection and correction schemes). This same problem reared it's head in the manufacture of active matrix LCDs, which are the most extreme form of a chip - the size of the whole screen. Cost effective sizes ginally jumped from about 9 diagonal to more once they figured out how to make the displays line by line - the lines are produced on a drum and 'stuck onto' the glass, one by one. They are tested as they get stuck, and if found defective, the whole line is scrubbed off, then replaced by a new one from the drum - instead of throwing the whle screen away. In parallel with these technology, material technology advances also, so as time goes by, and prodcts mature, they actually move downwards in the technology chain. For instance, to get the first 15 LCDs, the drum technology was required. Advances in materials made it possible to produce 15 screens using traditional technology today, but at the same time, combined with the drum thing, now you can make 19 screens. Nasta
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
In article 3BD046D3.18653.10B3805@localhost, Wolfgang Lenerz [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes On 17 Oct 2001, at 20:07, Malcolm Cadman wrote: Also, do not forget that the first microdrives were intended to be only the start of a whole range of innovative new ways for mass storage. Clive subsequently 'lost' a lot of his 'millions' investing in plant and research to produce new devices that would have developed and owned, and sold to the world. Wafer memory... Yes ... it did prove to be 'wafer thin' ... :-) Although IBM have now got a mass storage device out called a 'microdrive', too. -- Malcolm Cadman
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], ZN [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes Big snip :-) The wafer technology was of course based on chip technology and design and testing procedures of the time. Today it would actually be easyer to produce them as things like mid-process testing, late stage metalization, flash memory, entifuses etc. are well suited and well known technologies for wafer scale integration. Originally, Catt intended this to be a (parallel) computer on a wafer (in fact, his 'spiral' patent was later superceeded by something called the 'kernel machine'). Memory was initially intended as a 'back door' to peddle the concept and bring it to a mass market. Today, using it as solid state memory would actually immediately find a market in various devices that use flash chips. Very interesting, Nasta. As you say the technology is always moving on, and what was 'difficult' to achieve 10 to 15 years ago, is now everyday technology. So, the patents for Sinclairs' version of 'wafers' has long since gone to other companies ? -- Malcolm Cadman
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
On 10/19/01 at 8:39 PM Malcolm Cadman wrote: The wafer technology was of course based on chip technology and design and testing procedures of the time. Today it would actually be easyer to produce them... Very interesting, Nasta. As you say the technology is always moving on, and what was 'difficult' to achieve 10 to 15 years ago, is now everyday technology. So, the patents for Sinclairs' version of 'wafers' has long since gone to other companies ? Probably. I learned from Catt's page that they went back to the bank, who no doubt sold them somewhere to make money off of them to pay the debts. Speaking of various interesting technologies, I wonder what happened to Sinclair's asynchronous microprocessor. That would have been a great project too, especially since some people at the Frauenhoffer isntitute (IIRC) developed it quite far, using self-handshake logic instead of clocked logic. Nasta
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
ZN wrote: I wonder what happened to Sinclair's asynchronous microprocessor. That would have been a great project too, especially since some people at the Frauenhoffer isntitute (IIRC) developed it quite far, using self-handshake logic instead of clocked logic. The University of Manchester developed an ARM compatible processor using asynchronous logic, the Amulet2e. The last thing I heard of it that they were going to develop the Amulet3 for industrial production. But that was 1999, I don't know what happened to it. Another project is (was?) the Japanese TITAC-2 which is a sort of MIPS clone (not fully compatible). Marcel
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
May be worth following up just what the QL2 was going to be (probably like a Thor). I was sent a copy of the Tyche Rom which is partly, but not fully compatible, with QL ROMs. Can't remember the name of the company embedded in the code though - I think it was Sirius Cybernetics. The ROM itself was a 64K unit. Hmmm I wonder if the ROM will work with uQLx or another QL emulator :-) Care to send it? OK, wll send it privately to avoid binaries on this list, so you can est it on an emulator. I couldn't get it to work with QLay, but... -- Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
On 16 Oct 2001, at 21:27, Tony Firshman wrote: They changed to the crummy one that goes brittle probably to save 20p. Yup, that's the typical QL story - do it el cheapo! wolfgang - www.wlenerz.com
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
Roy Wood wrote: I was told that, just before the QL was due for release, someone showed Sir Clive one of the 'new' 3.5 drives and said it would fit into the same space as the microdrives. He is reported to have said 'That will never catch on' Last year I saw a QL with a 3.5 inch disk drive in place of the microdrives, not sure if it was Alex Wells at a Quanta workshop? It was mentioned in QL Tady at some point but a quick scan through failed to find. It definitely can be done with patience and dexterity. -- Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
Certainly apocryphal (TP spell checker - not me) as the 3.5 drives then were much too high. Suitable drives did not appear for years. but a nice story. The same story must have happened over the years - wheel, spinning jenny, bicycle, digital watch, mobile phone, head transplants.. Is this also true of the story behind choosing the 68008 over the full 68000; namely: At design stage the 68008 was in a plastic package and cheap, but the 68000 was in ceramic and expensive; hence went for 68008. Only prob was that when the QL actually went into production the 68000 was available in plastic and cheaper than the 68008!?
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Phoebus Dokos [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], Malcolm Cadman [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes A floppy disk drive would certainly have made it more successful - if people would have been prepared to pay for it. Around 1/3 to 2/3 again added to the selling price ? I was told that, just before the QL was due for release, someone showed Sir Clive one of the 'new' 3.5 drives and said it would fit into the same space as the microdrives. He is reported to have said 'That will never catch on' This is probably an apocraphal (is this spelled right Geoff ?) story but I like it. More an 'urban myth' :-) ... the business decisions were on cost, weight, appearance, etc ... plus Clive owned the rights to microdrives so he was about to make far more 'dosh' for himself ! ( With a disk drive he would have paid rights to someone else ). Also, do not forget that the first microdrives were intended to be only the start of a whole range of innovative new ways for mass storage. Clive subsequently 'lost' a lot of his 'millions' investing in plant and research to produce new devices that would have developed and owned, and sold to the world. Looking back from where we are now, and the development of hardware that has taken place, it seems odd that any 'individual' tried to do what he tried to do. Yet, then again, he was ( is ) an innovator ... and he just may have succeeded :-) -- Malcolm Cadman
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
In message 00ae01c1570c$3550db00$c7075cc3@default, Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes Roy Wood wrote: I was told that, just before the QL was due for release, someone showed Sir Clive one of the 'new' 3.5 drives and said it would fit into the same space as the microdrives. He is reported to have said 'That will never catch on' Last year I saw a QL with a 3.5 inch disk drive in place of the microdrives, not sure if it was Alex Wells at a Quanta workshop? It was mentioned in QL Tady at some point but a quick scan through failed to find. It definitely can be done with patience and dexterity. Well spotted, Dilwyn. I am pretty sure that Sinclair also developed a few prototypes for internal testing, etc, that included disk drives ... although whether they were 'working' ones, or just 'dummies' I couldn't say. I will try and check this out sometime, as I still know the industrial designer who worked on the QL project for Sinclair. -- Malcolm Cadman
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Tarquin Mills [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes Malcolm Cadman wrote: Peter Graf wrote: Tony wrote: Microdrives especially killed the QL. He tried to push the speed up to 100k - and they never worked reliably. Unfortunately, the 3.5 disks at the time were simply too large and power hungry. If only... ..the QL would have been more successful than the Macintosh, there'd be a million active QL users, and Motorola would be producing 3rd generation 850 MHz 68060 CPU's ;-) A floppy disk drive would certainly have made it more successful - if people would have been prepared to pay for it. Around 1/3 to 2/3 again added to the selling price ? I remember my first double disk drives for QL were around 200ukp, and then there was the disk interface too :-( In 1987/88 the Amiga A500 and Atari ST took off and went on to sell in the millions. Amstrad (Alan Sugar himself) said who wants a 16 bit computer, as a child reading computer magazines and looking at the graphics of the 68K based machines I knew why. I wanted one to replace my ZX-Spectrum. I fell Amstrad missed a opportunity to repacked to the QL in the same form and do the same as Commodore and Atari. I.e. add a normal keyboard, a 3.5 disc drive, upgrade the processor to a 68000 and most important of all add better graphics. As the QL with (QDOS) already existed (with an user and software base) it would have saved development time. Amstrad position is made more understandable by the quality of the CPC and his PC strategy. While on the subject of not created computers, Oric developed a 68K computer but could not get to work (see http://freespace.virgin.net/james.groom/oric/oricfaq.htm). Then their was the Spectrum Loki. You are right, Tarquin, that was a really important time when Alan Sugar / Amstrad took over the rights to the Sinclair / QL. If he / Amstrad had properly 'revamped' the QL, he would have had a very competitive product in the personal computer market at that time. He could have sold a million or two ... Yet AS is ( was ) a hard nosed business man, he ( quite rightly as history now shows ) saw that PC's were the 'mass' market way to go. Where are 'personal computers' now ? ... on the margins. The market is dominated by mass produced PC's ( alias business / home machines ). Does anyone know how many millions of PC's have been sold, and how much money has been generated by the PC Market in hardware / software, etc ? So, AS was right to make the decision not to develop the QL ! Only his own efforts with PC's eventually came to a halt some time later too :-) -- Malcolm Cadman
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair innovations (and errors)
: I will try and check this out sometime, as I still know the industrial : designer who worked on the QL project for Sinclair. : : -- : Malcolm Cadman About innovations at Sinclair Research, TT once told me this interesting story. They wanted to develop a pointing device at the beginning, before mice became standard. So they imagined a pen on a rubber surface. Under this rubber surface a electrically conductive layer for sensing coordinates with the pen into one direction, then a very thin insulating layer and again a electrically conductive layer to sense coordinates into the second direction. They had very big difficulties with the isolating material between the 2 conductive ones. It had to be very thin in order to allow easy navigation and yet to isolate, or there could be interferences. TT was in charge of this, and he found the solution in a sex shop: he ended up using very light tissues also used by men and women for other purposes. And he got an interesting reputation inside Sinclair Research! The pity of this story: Sinclair Research took a patent for this system which now seems to be widely used in portable PCs, but alas they never paid to keep the patent alive... Arnould
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
This is probably an apocraphal (is this spelled right Geoff ?) story but I like it. ---^ Apocryphal (Apo = From, Crypto/Crypho = Hidden ;-) Elementary Dr. Wood :-) Phoebus I think it was the 'crap' element that attracted me to that spelling. As in From Crap Hal ! but I must admit that I have only thought this up as an afterthought. -- Roy Wood Q Branch 20 Locks Hill, Portslade, Sussex BN41 2LB Tel : +44(0)1273-386030 / Mobile : +44 (0) 7836-745501 Fax +44 (0)1273-381577 web site : http://www.qbranch.demon.co.uk/
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
Tony wrote: Microdrives especially killed the QL. He tried to push the speed up to 100k - and they never worked reliably. Unfortunately, the 3.5 disks at the time were simply too large and power hungry. If only... ..the QL would have been more successful than the Macintosh, there'd be a million active QL users, and Motorola would be producing 3rd generation 850 MHz 68060 CPU's ;-) Peter
RE: Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
..the QL would have been more successful than the Macintosh, there'd be a million active QL users, and Motorola would be producing 3rd generation 850 MHz 68060 CPU's ;-) And keyboard membranes wouldn't be as rare as hens' teeth. -Original Message- From: pgraf Sent: 16 October 2001 12:02 To: ql-users Cc: pgraf Subject: Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair Tony wrote: Microdrives especially killed the QL. He tried to push the speed up to 100k - and they never worked reliably. Unfortunately, the 3.5 disks at the time were simply too large and power hungry. If only... ..the QL would have been more successful than the Macintosh, there'd be a million active QL users, and Motorola would be producing 3rd generation 850 MHz 68060 CPU's ;-) Peter Visit our website at http://www.ubswarburg.com This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. This message is provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any securities or related financial instruments.
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
On Tue, 16 Oct 2001 at 14:11:12, ZN wrote: (ref: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) On 10/16/01 at 4:59 PM [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ..the QL would have been more successful than the Macintosh, there'd be a million active QL users, and Motorola would be producing 3rd generation 850 MHz 68060 CPU's ;-) And keyboard membranes wouldn't be as rare as hens' teeth. The fact that today practically 99.99% of all computer keyboards ARE membrane based with mechanical keys on top, just like the QL's, must be the biggest irony of all. Granted, silicone materials have gone some ways in the last 17 years so the 'bubble mat' used instead of springs feels more springy that in the days of the QL, but taking apart a modern PC keyboard will reveal ALL the same parts from a QL keyboard of yore. ... but all the membranes I have seen, from Z88 to PCs (other than Spectrum ones) have been the good quality clear plastic which stays flexible. In fact, I worked on an Apple powerbook once - for a different problem, and damaged the membrane. The Apple membrane actually had encapsulated wire, and I solder repaired it - with a massive sigh of relief. -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.firshman.demon.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
..the QL would have been more successful than the Macintosh, there'd be a million active QL users, and Motorola would be producing 3rd generation 850 MHz 68060 CPU's ;-) And keyboard membranes wouldn't be as rare as hens' teeth. When I was talking to Syd Humphreys, he said that QLEA had bought some QL spares, which he still owns. I think he said he had membranes. He might be willing to part with them for a payment to the Bramerton Computer Club. -- Yours Tarquin Mills (ACCUS)
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
Malcolm Cadman wrote: Peter Graf wrote: Tony wrote: Microdrives especially killed the QL. He tried to push the speed up to 100k - and they never worked reliably. Unfortunately, the 3.5 disks at the time were simply too large and power hungry. If only... ..the QL would have been more successful than the Macintosh, there'd be a million active QL users, and Motorola would be producing 3rd generation 850 MHz 68060 CPU's ;-) A floppy disk drive would certainly have made it more successful - if people would have been prepared to pay for it. Around 1/3 to 2/3 again added to the selling price ? I remember my first double disk drives for QL were around 200ukp, and then there was the disk interface too :-( In 1987/88 the Amiga A500 and Atari ST took off and went on to sell in the millions. Amstrad (Alan Sugar himself) said who wants a 16 bit computer, as a child reading computer magazines and looking at the graphics of the 68K based machines I knew why. I wanted one to replace my ZX-Spectrum. I fell Amstrad missed a opportunity to repacked to the QL in the same form and do the same as Commodore and Atari. I.e. add a normal keyboard, a 3.5 disc drive, upgrade the processor to a 68000 and most important of all add better graphics. As the QL with (QDOS) already existed (with an user and software base) it would have saved development time. Amstrad position is made more understandable by the quality of the CPC and his PC strategy. While on the subject of not created computers, Oric developed a 68K computer but could not get to work (see http://freespace.virgin.net/james.groom/oric/oricfaq.htm). Then their was the Spectrum Loki. -- Yours Tarquin Mills (ACCUS)
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], Malcolm Cadman [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes A floppy disk drive would certainly have made it more successful - if people would have been prepared to pay for it. Around 1/3 to 2/3 again added to the selling price ? I was told that, just before the QL was due for release, someone showed Sir Clive one of the 'new' 3.5 drives and said it would fit into the same space as the microdrives. He is reported to have said 'That will never catch on' This is probably an apocraphal (is this spelled right Geoff ?) story but I like it. -- Roy Wood Q Branch 20 Locks Hill, Portslade, Sussex BN41 2LB Tel : +44(0)1273-386030 / Mobile : +44 (0) 7836-745501 Fax +44 (0)1273-381577 web site : http://www.qbranch.demon.co.uk/
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 At 11:47 ìì 16/10/2001 +0100, you wrote: In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], Malcolm Cadman [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes A floppy disk drive would certainly have made it more successful - if people would have been prepared to pay for it. Around 1/3 to 2/3 again added to the selling price ? I was told that, just before the QL was due for release, someone showed Sir Clive one of the 'new' 3.5 drives and said it would fit into the same space as the microdrives. He is reported to have said 'That will never catch on' This is probably an apocraphal (is this spelled right Geoff ?) story but I like it. - ---^ Apocryphal (Apo = From, Crypto/Crypho = Hidden ;-) Elementary Dr. Wood :-) Phoebus -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.1 Int. for non-commercial use http://www.pgpinternational.com iQA/AwUBO8zKotznHcwPtTTuEQLxFQCg4sc12/V+apbs+rggEfGc0gvvgmAAoOSD TVQfk+y7HhxwgCaUAcwlTPEx =AtR1 -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair (formerly QPC2)
- Original Message - From: Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ql-users] QPC2 SINCLAIR RESEARCH LIMITED 1A Spring Gardens, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON, SW1AA 2BB www.sinclair-research.co.uk Why not send a copy of QL Toady? If he responds it would be interesting to see it printed in the next issue. :) Now there's a thought! With or without pages 14 - 16? You said I would be flamed, but I didn't think you would be devious enough to actually arrange it. Geoff Wicks [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ql-users] Clive Sinclair (formerly QPC2)
On Mon, 15 Oct 2001 at 19:37:43, Geoff Wicks wrote: (ref: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) - Original Message - From: Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ql-users] QPC2 SINCLAIR RESEARCH LIMITED 1A Spring Gardens, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON, SW1AA 2BB www.sinclair-research.co.uk Why not send a copy of QL Toady? If he responds it would be interesting to see it printed in the next issue. :) Now there's a thought! With or without pages 14 - 16? You said I would be flamed, but I didn't think you would be devious enough to actually arrange it. I agree wholeheartedly with what you said. Microdrives especially killed the QL. He tried to push the speed up to 100k - and they never worked reliably. Unfortunately, the 3.5 disks at the time were simply too large and power hungry. If only... -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.firshman.demon.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG
