hardware review

© clear

almost every zine (periodical or not) on speccy reckons its duty to review the new software. but i've never seen a hardware review (except articles about spectrum modifications). that's why i've decided to make such review in adventurer.

technological progress looks forward: the silicon valley giants are working at 65 nanometers process for their 3... ghz pentiums, athlons and so on with core voltage lesser than 1 volt, but we are still on 5v, 3,5/7 mhz... it seems that we hopelessly missed that progress (and maybe it's better for us).

today, there are only 2 manufacturers of spectrum-compatible machines in russia: peters+ and nemo. well-known in a distant pass scorpion doesn't develop spectrum hardware anymore, it just sells out their remains.

peters+

in 1997 caused a sensation with their latest work - sprinter. by developing a computer with flexible (uploading) architecture based on "altera" they prepared for the world domination among other spectrum-compatible products. though sprinter has a plenty of advantages such as few video modes, hdd and mouse it didn't conquer the market due to the bad ay emulation or maybe just because of concervative consumers... perhaps, the price for this hardware is too high -115$ for motherboard and 170$ for assembled computer with mouse and keyboard. also there is no information from sprinter users that somehow can reveal the advantages and disadvantages of using this machine.

sprinter obtained nothing new in architecture during last few years, only some elements were replaced with their new analogues.

peters+ is developing a new model now, they say that every single machine is handmade and subjected to the following tune up. currently, this manufacture aimed at the eastern consumers, and even peters+ official site had no russian version until recent time.

more: http: //www.petersplus.com/sprinter.htm

nemo

his creation - "kay 1024" 7mhz is the "last hope of user", because it's impossible to buy something different due to the another production's absence (except secondhand machines). "kay 1024" has a lot of advantages and a one big drawback - unswitchable turbo mode. so, the programms (games and demos), written for pentagon 3,5 mhz work incorrectly.

the only possible contact with nemo is snail mail. it lets nemo to be too late with the answers and brings a lot of upsets to the customers and sometimes make them avoid of such deals. by publishing his "deep thoughts" in mass media, nemo showed everybody his own philosophy, and according to this he tries to promote "the most progressive machine". at the same time he ignores the modern means of communication leaving himself locked up in the stone age.

if he had an email, perhaps he could have stopped complaining about the "money earning difficuilty" on spectrum.

i want to say some words about the project from the city of licichansk, ukraine. it is a pentagon 1024 motherboard with all currently available modifications. as i know, this motherboard exists in a single copy and is very unstable. it would be very hard for an ordinary consumer to use this product even having the detailed schematics and the maintenance guide.

the dimensions of this motherboard: 25x40 cm. it consists just a little more than 100 pieces of logic and fits only a big tower pc case. this fact means that this project is unprofessional, comparing with original pentagon motherboard with its dimensions 31x13, 5 and 100 pieces of logic.

during 2002 there was nothing new in interenet about this project, and it is possible to make a conclusion that the project is stopped and development is cancelled. so, you can forget about acquiring this motherboard.

there are yet many talanted people on spectrum aboard. delighted with the nearest past, they are also trying to develop their hardware. currently, there are few various projects but the most deserving of being reveiwed here are:

zx spectrum se (germany, creator -andrew owen)

zx spectrum +3e (spain, harry lancaster)

sparky ezx (usa, richard kelsh)

while reading about these projects i've made a conclusion that even their creators live in different countries they are joined together in their desire to make their computers compatible with each other, when russians are not. for example, nemo directs his kay towards is-dos, peters+ made something totally new and not compatible with any other os for their sprinter. even for pentagon much more operating systems were created also not compatible with each other. it seems that every os developer imagine himself a genius and don't concern about others, questioning himself lately, why his operating system wasn't accepted by the masses.

all following computers can work under "extended basic", which is currently is being developed.

so, zx spectrum se. the first information appeared in 1999 and now this project is finished completely, the first example of this machine was made already, though its specification differs from what was in the beginning of the development. the prototype is a portugal timex tc2048, strongly changed by jarek adamski, who developed and realized all modifications. models of timex tc2048, ts/tc2068 and uk2086 can be easily modificated to zx spectrum se. it is possible to gain the most of the functional possibilities of zx spectrum se, except additional ram and video modes of timex, on the other models mentioned above.

specifications: extended video mode 512x192, tr-dos emulation, 280 kb rom + 27 kb video rom, ide hdd is coming soon, 3.528 mhz processor with 70512 tacts per int against pentagon with 3, 5 mhz and 71680 tacts. int frequency is 50.04 hz, pentagon - 48 hz. nevertheless, these parameters don't allow to emulate pentagon, so russian soft wont work correctly.

somebody can argue - why does he compare everything with pentagon? the reason is very simple pentagon 128 with 3, 5 mhz is the ex-ussr standard machine de facto, and all soft is being made for it.

more: http: //zxse.raww.net/

zx spectrum +3e

zx spectrum +3e is an extended configuration of sinclair zx spectrum +3, which was built by amstrad in the end of 80ies. all improvement is reduced to the replacement of the old rom with the new one which has the old mistakes corrected and also some basic +3 commands added. one of the most important features of the new rom is ide drive support. so, it's something like non-turbo scorpion zs-256, solely the amount of virtual diskettes is 65536. communication with hdd uses 1 byte, that's why only half of disk space can be used. these diskettes may have the maximum size in 16 mb, but they can't be tr-dos disks due to the tr-dos absence in rom.

more: http: //www.zxplus3e.plus.com/

next project - sparky ezx

it is based on the 8-bit processor ez80 50 mhz. as the developer says, this system was built for experiments and entertaining. because processor is manufactured only in a vqfp case, which couldn't be moulded to a motherboard (i have some doubts on this statement), the developer refused to built a motherboard at all. it will be replaced by "zilog ez80 evaluation board", which has the processor already mounted by zilog. this board is promoted by its producer as a complete internet web-server.

currently, the full specification isn't available, there is only some information about this product: 16 mb rom, keyboard and modem can be attached directly to processor thru rs232 port. the original version of programmable "extended basic" is being written now, it will use all 16mb of memory.

this project is not finished, so it is too early to talk about it.

more: http: //members.cox.net/rjkelsch/

finally, i want to express my opinion about these projects. a lot of work was put into all of them, but conformably to ex-ussr they all have no perspectives. it is because of our tr-dos and 3,5 mhz. my vision of spectrum in future in any modifications it must provide 100% correct work as a pentagon 128, 3,5 mhz with tr-dos 5.03. in any other way, machine will be distanced from user and forgotten, what already happened with some of spectrum compatibles.