Subliminal Extacy
#03
01 апреля 2001 |
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Timex in Portugal
Timex in Portugal By Johnny Red After Timex Computer Corp. stopped manufacturing and selling computers, Timex of Portugal, a Timex subsidiary, in 1985 decided to market the Timex computers in Portugal (Portugal wasn't in the Sinclair market. Due to the Sinclair agreement, the biggest part of the european market was closed to Timex.) They took the TS2068 and made some modifications, like a new version of the SLCD chip for PAL TVs, replaced the buffers between the SLCD and Z80 bus with resistors and modified the expansion connector to be more Spectrum compatible, creating the Timex Computer 2068 (TC2068). TMX of Portugal knew the compatibility problem that the TS2068 had when running most of the ZX Spectrum programs and decided to make a new machine, the Timex Computer 2048 (TC2048). This new machine had the SLCD of the TC2068 and a ZX Spectrum ROM with a little routine so it would start with the correct video mode. After the TC2048, TMX of Portugal started to develop a floppy disk interface and Timex Operating System (TOS), to work with Timex computers. They called it the Timex FDD, a separate Z80 computer with it's own Z80 cpu, 16K RAM, two serial RS232 ports, a disk controller and one 3" disk drive. Some people call it the FDDЗ because it came in 3 separate boxes (power supply/controller/disk drive) with the same design. The Timex FDD is far more advanced than Sinclair Microdrives! TOS have suport for subdirectories and a 160K disk format. One hidden feature of TOS is the ability to format disks with 640K, using a 80 tracks/double sided disk drive. The Timex FDD controller can control four drives, giving a total of almost 2,SMB of direct data access!! After the launch of the FDD system, Timex upgraded it to work with CP/M replacing the 16K RAM by 64K, and putting 2 disk drives, the controller and the power supply in one box. Timex name it the FDDЗO00. Since the FDDЗO00 is a separate computer, TMX of Portugal designed a terminal emulator to control CP/M with a Timex computer and created the Timex Terminal 3000, a terminal keyboard for FDDЗO00 to replace the Timex computer and the terminal emulator. TMX Portugal also planned a new machine for the next generating of the Timex Computer series, the Timex Computer 3256 (TCЗ256), a Z80 computer with 256K of RAM, disk drives, network, ram disk, new commands to operate the new features called Timex Extended BASIC, a word processor in ROM and retro compatibility with the Spectrum! TC2068 have been sold in the British market and the British computer press nick-named the TC2068 as the "silver agenver" because of it's spectrum compatibility. Timex of Portugal was managed to export the TC2068 and the FDD to the United States themselves. TMX Portugal was working in several areas of computer science. It had the TC project in process and jointly worked for Minolta and IBM in the area of networks for computers of greater productivity. The technology was from the Portuguese engineers who were working to enhance networking capabilities in use in the great companies, which were very slow by today's standards. TMX Portugal had very intelligent people working for them at this time. Because of that salaries were high and the technology moved as fast as the wind. TMX found ways to do things to make savings. The people working for TMX were very intelligent and knowledge didn't lack. The engineers of TMX Portugal frequently went abroad to take computer science courses and they usually ended up giving the course that they attended because their knowledge was superior to the course teachers. The TMX engineers loved their work to the point that they "gave their shirts" for the company. In Dundee, Scotland there was also a Timex factory. This division was in financial trouble for varied reasons, among them bad manufacturing of plates for their customers. It is said that only one in three worked correctly (noticable in the manufacture of the Sinclair and Timex Sinclair computers). This led to the company's losing of its customer base. Compared to the production in Portugal, where the flaws were 1 in 1000, the Scottish operation was in dire trouble. With massive unemployment on the horizon Margaret Thatcher negotiated with Portugal, through Cavaco Silva, and arranged the tranfer of everything of TMX of Portugal to Scotland: know how, projects, customers and materials, but without any of the Portuguese people. The TMX employees went to unemployment lines instead of the Scottish employees. My contact, one of the last engineers in TMX, handed over to the Scotsmen the whole know how of TMX Portugal. Because of what happened later, when the Timex plant in Scotland finally closed for good, he cannot stand to hear or speak of Cavaco Silva and of the responsible minister who moved the business. It is not known what Portugal received in exchange for giving the technology of TMX Portugal to the UK. If this had not happened, TMX would possibly be a a big player today in the area of computer science (affirmed my contact). During this process, American Timex, had enormously jealous of TMX Portugal (the most credible is the independence that TMX Portugal had from the Timex group. TMX Portugal produced, designed and repaired all the equipment. Even CP/M was adapted in Portugal), It is belived that Timex America looked with favor on the closing of Timex of Portugal. It seems obvious, as the practice that the governments of the two countries had arranged, was in its thought line. With relationship to Timex of Scotland, the knowledge and the creative capacity of the Portuguese engineers was no longer involved and Scotland Timex could not give continuing continuity to the projects and works in process and it didn't last very much longer. And then Timex Dundee plant closed. Many more details could be said concerning this shameful business, but already an idea of everything that happened has been presented. There were people that destroyed the life of a great company and of all its employees and families as if they were nothing. See what happens with EC and the Portuguese agriculture.... If our understanding is correct, the TC2048 is the only computer ever built in Portugal. Just to give an idea, TMX Portugal Computer sold only to Poland 200.000 FDDЗO00 units and about 700.000 Timex Computers.
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