Ok so the dude is a sheister. What should then be
known as the first home computer? Funny, I haven't the
wherewithal to even make a guess at this particular
moment.
This is a recurrnet thread here.... I depends on how you define 'home'
and 'computer'...
64K of RAM,
with a 16K
ROM that can replace part of the RAM
swap in or out IOWs?
Yes. I am trying to rememebr the details -- I suppose I could haev a hunt
for the schematics... It's something like there's an output port that
when you write to it it toggles a flip-flop. In one state you have 64K of
RAM. In the other state you have 32K of RAM in the top half of the
processor's address spave, the bottom 32K is ROM (the standard 16K system
ROM and the empty socket alongside it). It clearly states out in the
second mode after a reset.
There's a built-in 3" (not 3.5")
floppy drive with a
WD chip (I think a
1170) to control it. And space for a second drive.
It will drive a 3.5" floppy as b:, wondering if it
can do it as the a: drive also.
No reason why not. The disk interface is pretty standard. It's the normal
34 pin conenctor, signals as you'd expect them. I think the standard
drive is single-head 40 cylinder, I have no idea how easy it is to get
the OS to recognise 2 heads and/or more cylinders.
'Tube'
is a
pun on 'bus', both
being public transport systems in London)
I was under the impression Tube was a reference to a
subway (undeground railway). Ah well...
It is. A nunderground railway is surely a public transport system.
Acorn called their second-processor interface the 'Tube'. Partly to give
the idea of a pipe down which you could shove data between the 2
processors, and partly because Tube == underground railway == alternative
to a bux (as a means of transporting people around London).
Tatung called thge expansion bus on the Einstein the 'Pipe'. It was
clearly a pun on 'Tube', although it had nothing to do with second
processors (AFAIK there never was a second processor for the Einstein),
it was just a standard Z80 system bus
-tony