Apple ][ boards -- what have I found?

From: Derek Peschel <dpeschel_at_eskimo.com>
Date: Wed Jul 25 01:43:39 2001

On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 08:51:17PM +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
> > Years ago, an associate configured a Quark for external terminal. (Quark
> > was a tiny 80x86 PC compatible computer like the Ampro little board or PMC
> > that could fit comfortably into a drive case along with a half height
> > drive)
> >
> > We joked about using an Apple as the terminal. Then we could sell the
> > machine as a "drive" for Apple that would let it run PC software, since
> > many Apple users wouldn't know or understand that the Apple was only
> > acting as the terminal, and that the computer was in the drive case.
>
> There was a thing sold in the UK called a Torch Graduate. It was an
> add-on for the BBC micro that was essentially a complete PC motherboard
> (8088) + a few interface chips and a BBC Micro ROM. It also had 2
> built-in 5.25" drives, It ran MS-DOS (IIRC the normal PC version) The BBC
> was used as the keyboard and video display only for a PC system...

How is this different from the BBC Master 512K (or whatever the
PC-compatible second processor was)? Did the Torch Graduate use the Tube?

Just in case anyone doesn't know... The normal system bus on the BBC runs at
1 MHz which is only half the CPU speed. The Tube runs at 2 MHz and is
designed to be connected (through a semi-custom Acorn chip, some cables, and
a matching chip) to one of a number of "second processor" units.

It's basically the arrangement Tony and the original poster describe, but
the units are bigger than a disk drive, and the BBC may do more of the work
than a typical terminal.

-- Derek
Received on Wed Jul 25 2001 - 01:43:39 BST