11 Mar
2003
11 Mar
'03
9:49 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Adrian Vickers
Sent: 10 March 2003 00:55
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: ICL OPD/Merlin Tonto
The ICL OPD (One-Per-Desk) and Merlin Tonto (identical machines
internally)
Identical machines, period :) The only differences were the stick-on badges
and serial number stickers on the bottom.
were a derivative of the Sinclair QL, featuring the
addition of a
telephone
handset, better keyboard, slightly improved microdrives (sufficiently
improved that they are, apparently, incompatible with QL mdvs; something
I've not checked yet), and a much bigger ROM. That ROM contains a
Everything was re-engineered by ICL, so the only thing the OPD shares with
the QL is the 3 QL ROMs and the CPU. Everything else is different. ICL also
re-engineered the microdrives to make them more rugged and reliable; whether
they were successful at this or not remains a moot point I think. They're
definitely incompatible. The only way of doing data transfer from machine to
machine is serially, and remember the serial port on the OPD is for a
printer only so is uni-directional.
telephone
directory, and a few other utilities to boot. Add-on ROMs included
messaging (I'm unsure as to what that is yet, although mine has
it), Psion
Xchange (Quill word processor, Easel graphics - well, graphs, Archive
database and Abacus spreadsheet). Xchange also featured on the
CST Thor[1],
and was also ported to the PC, IIRC. The QL suffered along with the
original separate packages until its demise.
Also the machine had the same pre-emptive fully cooperating multi tasking
kernel, so all the apps could run together and share things.
http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/icl/opd.htm
and
http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/icl/tonto.htm
entirely sure what they did to it to make it that
slow; the QL seems to
trot along much more quickly. Maybe ICL just didn't write decent
software...
I don't recall either of mine being any slower than the QL, though it's a
few months since I last played with one. I just wish I had some
documentation for 'em.
cheers
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans