Odyssey Magazine #00 11 декабря 1996

Будущее Спектрума

Guests - On the prospects of SPECCY.

    In recent years, many disputes are how long left to live 
Speccy, that Amiga or better PC'yuk. And articles that you read 
below, we discover and close this debate. And my personal

the view that the Speccy alive while we're at it
play and work. The rest mass
writing.

            SPECTRUM RULES!

 A. Soft

                 *



    Currently, many users Spectruma often hesitate over the 
transfer of his tireless work to another platformu.Horosh 
Spectrum, but unfortunately it seems to me, is on the verge of 
their vozmozhnostey.I although our domestic programmers 
squeezed out of him, it seemed would be all that your heart 
desires, hardware it remained at the level of 1985. 
Well-designed scheme of the computer and low price has enabled 
successful compete with what emerged as more powerful machines: 
Commodore-64, IBM PC, and dr.Odnako 14 years for the car - this 
is Giant srok.Vy can argue

that modern Speccy has the drive, music coprocessor, 128kb
(256,512,1 MB) of memory, covoxom, and dr.vsyachinoy.No the 
fact that the heart of your computer Z80 has not changed since 
1981, which is the main impediment to development Speccy - 
whatever one may say, but what's the use in 1MB of memory, if 
for its completion will take plenty of time - except that the 
disks to copy? That is if you install a new processor that is 
compatible with Z80 - then went to work, but unfortunately this 
is a pipe fantasy - to develop a new processor

afford only to large firms that
have forgotten about the Speccy.

        Few remind our readers about the origin of Z80.Etot 
processor was developed in the early 80s the American company 
Zilog to raise performance is already outdated to

By the time Intel processor 8080.Novy
proved itself as a cheap, fast
ustroystvo.Chislo teams were raised
doubled, lifted the frequency, and about 8,080 remained
only as a reflection in the Soviet
KR580VM80.Prakticheski simultaneously with
Z80 came the Intel 8088 and Intel 8086,8 and 16-bit processors 
- the older fellows twins (cousins

Z80). However, although the family teams I8088
and Z80, in general, are similar, they almost
incompatible with each other on the basis of
one appears, we are familiar
Spectrum, based on another - IBM
PC / XT.Shlo time adding new family of Intel processors: 
somewhere 1983 80286, in the 1987-80386 (32-bit), then 80486, 
Pentium, Pro-Pentium, ... and the list of Z80-compatible almost 
has not been replenished, (except perhaps Z80H with doubled 
frequency). Average rate rose in comparison with 1982

at 400-900 times, respectively, increased
ability to process information - and
This means better graphics, sound.

        Due to the low performance Z80 is simply unable to 
handle high-quality graphics, even if to him our craftsmen 
hooked VGA-board. Spectrum - an excellent machine ... But 
within 80h.I whatever love we have for him did not belong to 
konstantirovat fact - Speccy order obsolete for its 14 years, 
and it did not last long remained to occupy the minds of 
programmistov.I no need to cry about that Spectrum will live 
forever - this is ridiculous, all comes konets.Osnovnaya mass 
of users, programmers are young people began to engage Speccy 
5-10 years ago when other cars were either too expensive (IBM, 
Amiga), or simply primitive (BK-0010, RC-86), used to

him and did not want to leave ego.Novyh
users is becoming less and
menshe.Eto and clear - those who are going to work and play, get
IBM, Amiga, those who only play the game-
consoles. Therefore, if you're a programmer
or simply let the user-those sober
assess the situation and choose a new
platform for our raboty.Programmist
- On whatever machine it did not work, will always find an 
interesting job to his liking, whether it's Speccy IBM, Amiga, 
Mac, ... 

        After this introduction let
talk a little about the machines that
may soon become the receivers Spektruma.Suschestvuyut I think 
only two serious contender for this role: IBM PC / AT and 
AMIGA, think you've heard about them, the more that is not 
small (or rather too much, in the absence of objective 
information) of good words said about AMIGA on the pages (and 
maybe the screen, or kilobytes) of our computer publications 
"Spectrophone" and "ZX-FORMAT". Unfortunately because of the 
lack of objective information of AMIGA is difficult to assess 
the advantages and shortcomings listed above mashin.Chtozh

try to compare their characteristics, based on the information 
that there is me:


       AMIGA - was created as a home
computer, which was supposed to supplant the market Spectrum 
game programm.Moschny video processor, which then and it said 
half-baked amigovtsy, allowed her to exceed all expectations 
derivation of fast grafiki.Novy way of presenting the data in 
memory is very convenient for the derivation videotsifrovannoy 
grafiki.Blagodarya him it became possible to show a high rate 
information on ekran.S details concerning the structure of 
video memory I do not know, but the principle of

Next: stored in groups of bits of video memory is not stored 
color of individual points, which is standard, and change the 
color, resulting in does not appear to limit the quality of

graphics (ie, increase volume of video memory). T.o.mozhno 
combine graphics with low and high resolution: t.e.vyvodit 
dynamic objects with low resolution and a static background with

high, thus saving resources protsessora.Etot computer quickly 
made himself at home market game programs and the disappearance 
of the Spectrum in the West appreciated in the market somewhere 
between game consoles and professional kompyuterami.Odnako 
lately because of the many resale rights to its release, coming 
into competition market for computer gaming giant

IBM, AMIGA order surrendered their positions, and
despite its many benefits are already
does not meet with enthusiastic cheers
Surprised users. One of the most remarkable property for the 
domestic user is AMIGA connection to a TV that allows you to 
save a lot of money when it purchase, unlike the IBM, which

trbuetsya special monitor, the cost of
which is often equal to the value
the machine itself.

        And now let me tell you
a little bit about what modestly silent
Beginners amigovtsy, praising his
machine extolling it above IBM - calling
its "accounting machine". So my dear supporters AMIGA, IBM has 
long already out of this age and its prospects are not inferior 
to AMIGA. 

        Yes, the first machine at IBM
was more than modest in its capabilities: RAM 64-320Kb, Clock 
4.47 MHz. Black and white monitor 80x25 characters

(9x7), 360KB floppy drive, ... However, after
appearance models XT (8088-8086), later
AT (80286 and above) features of this machine is growing: RAM 
640KB minimum, hard CD 10-40MB appeared CGA (maximum

640x200, 2 colors or 320h200h4 of 16
possible), then EGA (640h350-16 colors
out of 64 possible, and others). Of course, many
AMIGA users might laugh at this schedule, but do not forget 
that this 1983-85g. With the advent of MCGA and VGA an 
opportunity to display graphics really looks like a 
teleizobrazhenie.Naivysshie modes VGA - 640x480-16 colors, 256 
colors 320h200-out 256 tys.vozmozhnyh (is not it, this is

better, although still far AMIGA) By saying CODE BUSTERS AMIGA 
pulls like at least 26,000 colors from a 16.5 million

possible - 16.5 million - it is clear 3h8
bits, exactly as much as you can distinguish the human eye, but 
the 26 thousand ! It is unclear why not 32,768 or 16

384 - why 26,000 and where else?
You may wonder what I'm talking about graphics, but I'm talking 
about them because that's what they basically

link to supporters AMIGA. And now
modern achievements of IBM computers
- Large family graphics cards of different companies under a 
common name SVGA literally flooded the market, the number and 
characteristics of video modes vary but the most common

are: 640x480 256 of 256
Thousands, 800x600 - the same as 1024x768 - that
same, 1024x1024, 1280x1024, ... This is not bad when you 
consider that the TV gives somewhere 600x600 (but with 16 
million of than it later). This variety of modes due to the 
fact that the video processors have a flexible system of 
generating Scan have several clock

(Point-defining) the generators and all
this is controlled by software! In principle,
the number of options video modes much more, but they are not 
used in most programs to increase sovmestimosti.Odnako all 
about what we just talking is not the last

word art - for the most part, these
Modes have ustareli.Otnositelno
new (2-4 years ago) was to use 8 and 24 bit DAC, which resulted
the use of the above modes, but with 32 768 65 536, 16.5 
million colors simultaneously on screen! This is already rather 
high quality photos than just a picture on the screen 
Spektruma.Vstraivanie in recent models of these Adapters 
spets.mikroshemy compression video allows you to "scroll"

film on the entire screen with the quality of higher
than television and it's not fantasy -
exists, for example, a video "The Mask"
on 2 CD drives.

        Now you are convinced that the graphics capabilities of 
IBM's capabilities AMIGA.Intelovsky below the main processor 
outperform a processor company MOTOROLA - say this will not be 
exactly as not I have the data but I can suggest that this is 
so, because AMIGA originally created with a maximum thrust on 
the schedule, and IBM's computing raschety.Protsessor

Pentium faster than Z80 somewhere
,80486-1000 100MHz 500
times ,80386-40MHz in 100 raz.Matematicheskie coprocessors 
built into the main processor "digest" the trigonometric 
functions with 80-bit numbers (Ie, 20 decimal places for the 
time a few CPU cycles) - cool

not pravdali? And if you head on
shoulders, to understand all this is not so
hard.

        Besides that you poluchete
great tool for prgrammista, but also can to Use a large number 
of ready useful programm.Chto As opportunities for lone 
programmer, then he will certainly be more difficult than on 
the Spectrum where the majority of Western software is already 
outdated and "Outdo" them is not so trudno.No

There are many areas which do not reach
long arm of Microsoft, Borland, Id, Sierra, etc. it can be for 
example, too "Megademostroenie, small entertaining games (such 
as Scorch), music, sly as a system software for DOS, so and 
Windows, ... 

        Now if you see that IBM
- It is not so bad, the problem is more prosaic - 
stoimosti.Nesmotrya that the price of IBM-compatible equipment 
falls for domestic customers, it still high, but quite 
comparable with the prices of AMIGA (on spectrophone 200 $ -700 
$). Price 386DX40, 4Mb, SVGA 512kb, 210Mb-it seems to me quite

sufficient to at first - about
$ 150-250 (although without a monitor), depending of type of 
region, the Pentium ,8-100MHz 16MB, 1.2GB, SVGA2mb about

$ 500-700. Many will say that the monitor
will cost more in the $ 150-250, but the first
pores can be done without it (read
below). So I think that if they AMIGA worth about 1 million 
rubles (and even then Moscow) not be simpler to buy the 386, 
which further can be upgraded (if finances permit) for tezhe 
money? So make your choice. 

        Regarding the special monitor, it can be replaced by 
cheaper domestic or at least televizorom.Mozhno argue that the 
image quality of this "videsistemy will otvratitelnyi.Konechno 
TV - it's not brand monitor, and image quality will be far from 
brilliant, but remember that the above prices

AMIGA also do not include a monitor,
I very much doubt that the AMIGA, what
devices to pair with a household
TV she did not have, can
display normally read 80 characters in stroke.Dlya better
Images may be advisable to monitor vospolzovatsya Cpektruma 
better in black and white, because colored domestic monitors 
have a large grain size, and image quality given by a such a 
system would be slightly different from televizionnogo.S black 
and white same monitor is perfectly acceptable look

text 160simvolov in a row, and the application
Interlace provides images with more than 480 lines. (On normal 
TV 15kgts/50gts = 300 + 300 lines - from the use of 
cheresst.razvertki = 600 rows). conjugation scheme can collect

even unfamiliar with electronics, but if
You have displayed on the monitor, CSI and SSI
then in general no scheme is not required, and the rest of the 
work on reconfiguring the frequency sweeps (15 kHz instead of 
31-45kgts) will take over the program driver.


        I think I can show you that
IBM is not such a useless machine as
trying to show the supporters AMIGA.Vybor do you: - If you are 
going create commercials, producing

video processing - buy
AMIGA. - If you need an assistant in the car with a promising 
future, the sea, the software and the forest of unknown 
possibilities - buy IBM. - If the Do you have a need to assert 
themselves, learn to write great, high-quality programs from 
the "raw" material and does not feel lonely in their work - 
stay on the Spectrum! ________________________________________


  1996 Ysoft.