Date   : Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:54:08 +0100
From   : rhobbis@... (Richard Hobbis)
Subject: B 64k - is it a lost cause?

Sprow wrote:
>In article
><06146B5D5346FB41B5C65713A6EB725001476E3A@...>,
>    Tim Matthews <tim.matthews@...> wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>
>>how can you tell it's tape only? From no
>>Eprom slots? And when / why did they make these...?
>>
>
>No disc controller (8271/1770) chip would be a give away. I too thought the
>B  always had one fitted, seems not.
>
>At the time a disc drive cost about ?400 (about the same as the machine) so
>perhaps people thought they'd save a few quid on the basis they'd never be
>able to afford the drive, or perhaps they were for Econet systems where
>there's a shared central drive.
>Sprow.
>
>
Yeah there are no chips installed for the disc interface. As others have
suggested it could be upgraded.
But that's probably not going to happen as it's DOA and beyond my meager
skills to resuscitate :(

A possible reason for it not having the disc interface is that it came
with a Prestel Terminal ROM - perhaps it was a dedicated 'dumb terminal'
and as Sprow says, disc drives were expensive ...

Cheers
Richard

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