frankr@inmet.UUCP (01/20/84)
#N:inmet:5800039:000:1737
inmet!frankr Jan 18 12:21:00 1984
This information was grabbed from this weeks Electronic Engineering Times.
Sinclair Research Ltd. has announced a 7.5mhz 68008 based PC that will start
at $499. This new PC is called Quantum Leap. It sure sounds like one to me.
The base unit weighs less than 4 pounds(a display is not included) and measures
5-3/8 X 1-3/4 X 18 inches. It comes with 128k RAM (expandable to 680), dual
100k endless-loop cassettes. Graphics capabilities are 4 colors at 512 X 256,
8 colors at 256 X 256. The article made it sound as if text would be displayed
using 40 columns (if that is correct perhaps there will be an 80 column option).
The QL has a 65 key keyboard, two RS-232 ports, joystick, video and sound i/o
ports. While not explicitly discussed, I suspect it is a closed buss system.
On the other hand, Sinclair is quoted as saying that the QL will serve as the
nucleus for more powerful machines. The article mentions hard disks, IEEE 488,
Pascal, C, and terminal emulation as potential future enhancements.
Some applications are available for the QT; Quill, a word processor; Abacus, a
spreadsheet; Archive, a relational database (I'll believe it when I see it),
and Easel, and drawing and graphics package.
There are two operating systems available for the QT. One is called SuperBasic.
It sounds like Pascal control and data structures were added to Basic. So was
multi-tasking. As was support for the 256 user LAN that QT can use.
The other OS is called QDOS. It is also multi-tasking. It has windows as well.
More than 20 windows, each representing a running task (multi-tasking is won-
derful) can be displayed at once.
I can't believe it. Windows for less than $500. Wow.
Franklin Reynolds
{ima, esquire, decvax}!inmet!frankr