Reviews - ZX Spectrum 2002 year Hardware Review.

<b>Reviews</b> - ZX Spectrum 2002 year Hardware Review.

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 a 
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 two 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 +3 e (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 +3 e

ZX Spectrum +3 e 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 one 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.