On Tue, 15 Dec 1998, Marvin wrote:
>
> You mention adding FDs and a HD; when I read through the manual, I didn't
> see reference to that. Nor did I see any obvious place to connect them.
> What did I miss, and how do they get connected to the unit? Or were there
> different configurations available for the same model? When I took a look
> at it last night, it sure looks like a nice machine!!!
There were two types of floppy unit, the SDX and the FDX and a single type
of hard disk unit the HDX. The SDX had a controller box that plugged into
the left hand side of the main unit with a ribbon cable from that to a
single 800K (i think) floppy drive. The FDX and HDX units required a
controller board that fitted inside the main unit to the right and side of
the motherboard. The FDX and HDX boxes were identical quite large boxes
that could contain things like an 80 column card for CPM and Silicon
disks for really fast storage although I don't know if they were battery
backed up.
I have owned an MTX512 since they were new. It was a logical next step for
someone who had a ZX80, ZX81, Video Genie (TRS80 clone) and wanted a
colour machine that had decent assembly language support. My yonger
brother bought one two, and then he upgraded it with an SDX drive, an
extra 128Kb of memory and a Pascal ROM. I also now own an RS128 which is
essentially an MTX512 with an FDX box, and 80column card and dual serial
ports.
Finally one common misconception is that they are MSX compatible. The
reason for this is that they use the same graphics chip (that does
sprites etc.) as the MSX machines.
You can find a picture of an MTX512 and a picture of the internal circuit
board at:
http://www.heydon.org/kevan/collection/manufacturer-memotech/mtx512.html
--
Kevan
Collector of old computers: http://www.heydon.org/kevan/collection/
Received on Tue Dec 15 1998 - 12:34:09 GMT