Spectrum clones
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I. Bozhenko, S. Filimonov
To begin with - as a short
someone's preface, or a long epigraph-
fa - check out the excerpt from one
conversation held on May 21, 1998 in
some fidish local area called
"BEST.THOUGHT (Best and interesting tal-
ks)". Two of our participants, I admit,
unknown, and the third, Vitaly Lev, - one
from the creators of Lviv Spectrum, a
then Lviv FIDO:
Yuri Babintsev (YUB):
- I’ve always wondered: when-
Yes, our Lefties emulated crumbly fu-
YLA functions of the branded Sinclair Spectrum -
they themselves understood and repeated his work,
or somewhere the circuit of this miracle micro-
schemes?
Victor Golytvin (VG):
- Well, about “stolen”, you probably
that...
Lonely Sync was passing through Lviv
ler. And he fell into the clutches of some Natopty,
Dobusha and others like them. For a day this Sir
was sniffed, talked to and obscillo-
van from depth to width...
YUB:
- You want to say that in a day these
the guys learned to work with strangers
computer, made a copy from the ROM, bug-free
understood the principle of operation
video systems, remembered all the features
memory and port addressing? Not according to
I believe! Surely it took no less
years or they already had serious information
tions regarding the functioning of the YLA.
VG:
- I am responsible for my words. Really
the Spectrum layout was readyin a couple
months after "sniffing". About ce-
I don’t know any specific information, but about very
serious training (the class of these people,
as developers and programmers outside
discussion) again I affirm.
Understanding the architecture of the unit took away
they don't have much time, and
la ee immediate implementation on that
was "in the nightstand."
Vitaly Lev (VL):
- The diagrams were taken in one evening,
working layout was designed and assembled
in about two weeks. This is absolutely
exactly. I also took a small part in this
participation - the second layout was personally soldered. And on-
screwed up y Corns in the kitchen. In three days
set up.
VG:
- All subsequent “models” are not
forces of significant changes, but only "sha-
taly" from a less integrated element-
thick base to a more... So he went along
Cobky, changing names: "version from Hydra",
"Krasnodar version", and God knows it
Well, how many others were there? YUB:
- Well, don’t tell me... For example, I know three
main circuit solutions of the Spectrum, co-
which differ quite significantly from each other
from a friend: 1) Lviv, 2) St. Petersburg, 3)
"Pentagon". All the rest really
similar to the above.
VG:
- I'm not talking about circuit solutions, but about the "idea"
ology". Available in all models
YLA algorithm for accessing video data
memory, address space breakdown,
attribute registers and so on... This is after all
everywhere unchanged. However, this is already cmaxu-
baaet to a professional dispute about nothing.
VL:
- Yes, there are no circuit solutions. Everything
it was brought to Muscovy from Lvov,
and then it spread all over Cobky.
- - - So, really, to what extent
how do its clones differ from Spectrum ?
Let's try to check this using long-term experience.
Lviv radio market - expansion of all
possible models Spectrum 48k to 128k.
Naturally, it is not widespread enough
models in Western Ukraine - neither
such developed ones as "Scorpio", KAU, Spri-
nter,nor popular in other regions
"Taganrog", "Krasnodar", "Quorum" etc.
will not be considered here.
In this case, it will be easy to see
that all the variety of modifications of the model,
created inOKB of Lvov Polytechnic,by
its circuit solutions can
be reduced, ultimately, only to
two varieties - with separate
("Lviv") and general ("Leningrad") fields
memory, unlike many models one
from the other not even at the functional level
outside, but only by the elemental base and design
tion.
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