On Tue, 30 Oct 2001 at 20:47:22, Dilwyn Jones wrote:
(ref: <001c01c1619a$06c02c80$c0075cc3@default>)
>Jeremy Taffel wrote:
>
>>I have an original Psion Chess Microdrive, with its original wallet
>with
>>instructions. Its no good to me, as I no longer have a proper QL
>(only
>>emulators) does anyone want it?
>
>Nice, though, that you still refer to it as a "proper" QL. Despite the
>excellence of QPC2v2 emulator which I use, it's still basically a PC
>running a program which runs QL programs and I do sometimes turn back
>to an Aurora/Super Gold Card which I also regard as a "proper" QL
Indeed it is to my mind. It still runs practically all std QL
peripherals, and follows the original QL hardware to a remarkable
degree. I was, for instance, surprised to find that Nasta even used the
same hardware for the serial ports. He did though lay out the logic in a
more consistent way.
It uses the std ROM, 8302 and 8049. The main departure from the Ql is
the screen handling (of course) - and reliability.
My BBS ran on QLs up to maybe 1991, and was pretty unreliable.
I relied heavily on the high tech crash recovery system (Timeswitch
operating twice during the night (8-)# )
With Aurora I have only been aware of a handful of crashes in the last
10 years.
I keep meanng to work out how to use the I2C interrupt line, and use the
built in alarm countdown in the clock chip. I would use a QL prog to
keep re-setting the countdown. If the QL crashes, then the I2C would do
something on the interrupt line, and I could use this to actualte a
separate power down/restart device.
Needless to say, I have never found the time.
> I
>can fall back on when the PC gets on my nerves.
How many times a day is that then?
What I _really_ hate about the PC is not being in control (of W98).
So often the only solution is to re-install Windows - and even then not
the proper 'clean' install. What a monster W98 is - and what a con.
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