Date   : Sun, 15 May 2005 14:36:21 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: 8

On Sun, 2005-05-15 at 14:13 +0100, Dr. David Alan Gilbert wrote:
> * Jules Richardson (julesrichardsonuk@...) wrote:
> 
> > > P.S. I have an 8" drive but its in an ICL Perq - which I wouldn't
> > > want to dismantle; even though it didn't boot properly last time I
> > > tried.
> > 
> > Ooh, what PERQ? No schematics I take it? 
> 
> A Perq 1a (16k wcs) - no I don't think I have any schematics.
> (It is interesting that it was released about the same time as the
> Model B, but had 1MByte of RAM, almost mega pixel display, and a
> hard disc (which I think was 27MByte) - of course the Perq
> was about =C2£25k as opposed to the beebs =C2£400 !)

Yes, bit of a price difference! Very nice machines though. Ours is sick
with an analogue display fault at present, whilst our 2T1 is also down
with a flakey display - but I haven't ruled out that one being something
in the framebuffer circuitry yet rather than a monitor problem (hence
the reason I ask about schematics every time someone mentions PERQ)

Do you have any kind of install media for your 1a? I don't think there
are many copies floating around any more...

On topic for the list - did anyone ever release any kind of add-on
framebuffer for the BBC? All the graphical odds and ends I've seen for
Bs and Masters just make use of standard BBC display modes; did anyone
ever produce any bolt-on graphics processor (either bitmap or vector)
which the beeb could drive (albeit slowly no doubt) ?

cheers

Jules