24 Jul
2001
24 Jul
'01
6:43 p.m.
On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 08:51:17PM +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
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
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...