QL-Quality (Was: ZX-81 Question)

From: Adrian Vickers <avickers_at_solutionengineers.com>
Date: Wed Mar 27 04:16:06 2002

At 03:26 27/03/2002, you wrote:

>Adrian Vickers wrote:
>
> > The pro market was sort of catered for by the Thor, started as a QL in a
> > big beige box with a beige monitor and XT-style keyboard. It moved on quite
> > rapidly, eventually becoming an accomplished 68000 (not 68008) machine with
> > an improved OS (SMS/Q - still alive & well today). Unfortunately, the Thor
> > was too late - the IBM PC had already begun to claim dominance, primarily
> > due to the rapidly emerging clone mark
>
>Lets not forget the 68008 was a slow chip because all instructions on
>the 68000 was 2 or 4 or 6 bytes long and the 68008 only had a 8 bit
>buss.

Quite correct. It actually makes it an ideal hobbyist processor - simpler
bus interface, etc. It was also quite a bit cheaper, IIRC, than the 68000
when new.

>The 68000 I think too used a 8 x clock so the real clock speed is
>a lot slower than it seems.

I'm not sure about clock speeds. I'm pretty sure the QL's is 4MHz or
thereabouts, BICBW.

-- 
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
Received on Wed Mar 27 2002 - 04:16:06 GMT

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