9 Mar
2003
9 Mar
'03
7:04 p.m.
At 14:18 09/03/2003, you wrote:
On Sun, 9 Mar 2003, Dave Brown wrote:
Your question is already answered, but what the heck...
The ICL OPD (One-Per-Desk) and Merlin Tonto (identical machines internally)
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 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.
My OPD also has a 3rd-party addon disk interface (which plugs into the ROM
pack), which is rather nifty, and a lot more reliable (and faster) than
microdrives. The machine itself, however, is quite painfully slow. I'm not
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...
[1] BTW, does anyone have a CST Thor (especially if you're willing to part
with it). Any make/model considered, working or not. I'll even pay cash[2]
for it. I'd /love/ to get my hands on one!
[2] What's more, I'll even pay more than 75p[3] & a packet of Rolos!
[3] or 85p, counting inflation.
--
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
Maybe-maybe not. That 'UK spec' bit is
what I'm curious about. Do you know
what details will be different in other versions (but this would only be an
EPROM change wouldn't it?) --as in that for use in NZ?
I have a number of these things -both complete and working, as well as
partly ratted for spares (including some telephony modules)- they were
called 'computerphones' down here. About the only useful function they had
was the phone directory/dialler which was a winner. They were just a year
or so too late to ever really catch on in the face of competition from Macs
and pcs for any serious desktop computer functionality.
Are these actual computers or just dumb terminals with a telephone
built-in?