AMIGA FUTURE SPECIAL 35

Links
History Special –

SINCLAIR QL –
RWAP Software:
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/index.html
TF Services: http://tfs.firshman.co.uk/ql/
Jochen Merz/QL Today:

AN OLD RELATIVE
http://www.j-m-s.com/smsq/index.htm
Q60: http://www.q40.de/
QPC: http://www.kilgus.net/
QDT: http://www.jdh-stech.com/QDT/qdt.html
Launchpad: http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/gen/
When the Amiga was introduced in 1985 it didn’t excite people with just its outstanding multi- launchpad/launchpad.html
media capabilities, but also because of its use of the, at the time, brand new 68000 processor Quanta: http://www.quanta.org.uk/
from Motorola. Just like the Apple Macintosh and the Atari ST it was a representative of a new QL on the Amiga:
generation of computers. But at that time there was another competitor in this new market: http://www.mswift.unisonplus.net/ql/index.html
The Sinclair QL. In this special we would like to take a closer look at this relatively unknown http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/emu/index.html
competitor.
QL/Mac event
Don’t be afraid, we are not
http://www.qlvsjaguar.homepage.bluewin.ch/
turning Amiga Future into
index_no_frames.html
“ 6 8 0 0 0 ” magazine (who
remembers that) and will nat-
urally stay true to the Amiga.
But from time to time it’s inter-
esting to look a bit beyond the
confines of the Amiga and
look at other computers with
a 68000 processor that com-
peted with the Amiga in the
mid 80s. The Apple Macintosh
has made it into mainstream
by now and is, albeit in a
changed form, a fixed factor in
the computer market. Some- German Sinclair QL with Monitor and printer
thing the Amiga, after the Commodore affair,
unfortunately didn’t manage, just like the old First 68000
arch enemy Atari ST. Both systems still have a
truly active community and continuing devel- When it became known in 1984 that Apple
opment in software and hardware. But what would also introduce a new computer using
happened to the Sinclair QL? the 68000 processor some haste was in order
because Sir Clive Sinclair really wanted to be
ZX83 the first to introduce a new computer using the
then new Motorola processor. This intention
It’s best to start at the beginning. Following succeeded. A whole 12 days before the pres- Sir Clive Sinclair with Sinclair QL at the launch in 1984
his world wide success with the 8-bit home entation of the Apple Macintosh the Sinclair
computers ZX80, ZX81 and Sinclair Spectrum, QL was introduced at the International Hotel, It wasn’t only the first 32bit-microcomputer with
Sir Clive Sinclair (knighted in 1983) wanted to Hyde Park Corner in London. Together with a a Motorola 68xxx processor on the market but
create a new and revolutionary computer that powerful Office package from the firm Psion, also offered a powerful operating system with
would mainly be targeted at “professional” the built-in SuperBadic and two integrated pre-emptive multitasking. “Qdos”, developed
users, businessmen and small companies. Microdrive drives the QL was priced just under by Tony Tebby, was stored completely in ROM
In addition, the device should not only be 400 GBP. Making the QL cheaper than most just like the SuperBasic programing language,
more powerful but also cheaper than the com- 8-bit computers on the market but even more that featured powerful functions like recursive
petitors. The ambitious project started in the powerful. It was priced about 1/6th of the new procedures. Another interesting feature is the
late summer of 1982 and spanned some 18 Apple Macintosh. However, the Sinclair had integrated network “QLAN”, which could net-
months. A small team consisting of Sir Clive used the more economical 68008. This had work up to 63 QLs in a very simple manner. Ano-
Sinclair himself, Nigel Searle, David Karlin, 20 external registers, as opposed to the 24 ther in-house development of Sinclair were the
Tony Tebby (QL-operating system), Jim West- of the 68000 and a smaller databus. This had dual built-in MicroDrive drives. The Microdrive
wood, David Southward, Martin Brennan, Rick the consequence that the 68008 can address cartridges that came with it are about the size
Dickinson (Design) and Jan Jones (SuperBa- a maximum of 1 Megabyte of memory and at of a Compact Flash card and were in principle
sic) developed a completely new computer, the same frequency is slower than a 68000 mini tape cassettes with about 5 metres of conti-
the Sinclair QL, under the codename ZX82. processor. Internally however the Sinclair QL nuous tape that the drive could wind through in
Interestingly enough, the QL originally should works with 32-bit as well and is fully compat- about 7 seconds. Up to 110 kB of data could be
have been a portable device with a built-in ible with its big brother. stored on the very compact media. The graphics
LCD monitor and battery. This intention wasn’t and sound capabilities are, compared to the
quite technically feasible at the time and so Quantum leap Amiga that appeared a year later, not specta-
it was decided to release a desktop computer cular (512x512 in 4 colors, 256x256 in 8 colors,
instead. What stayed, was the compact form- By the way, the “QL” stand for “Quantum Leap”. beeper), but the QL was designed as a business
factor: the complete computer is housed, com- This somewhat immodest attribue has some jus- computer and thus a direct competitor to IBM
plete with two Microdrive drives, in an elegant tification however because the Sinclair QL really and Apple Macintosh. The Apple Macintosh at
black keyboard case that is smaller than most offered in 1984 (one year before the launch of that time offered for example only monochrome
current keyboards. the Amiga) some revolutionary features. graphics with 512x342 pixels
36 AMIGA FUTURE SPECIAL

Bad Karma
Although the QL was a very
interesting computer with a
sensational price/performance
rate (an original IBM computer
with similar performance cost
almost 10 times as much at
the time), the success that was
hoped for by Sinclair didn’t
come. Even the launch was
unfortunate and badly prepa-
red: to be able to introduce
the QL before the Apple Macin-
tosh they went public with a
half finished device. Sinclair
promised however to start
shipping the QL 28 days after
the launch, but in truth those
who pre-ordered the computer
had to wait for months. Also,
it took another few months
before all the major bugs were
ironed out of the operating
system. The first devices ship-
ped were error prone because
of that and were accordingly
badly reviewed by the press.
The later units did convince however, but the The Sinclair QL was, at its introduction, ahead function as dealer and/or publisher, like the
image of the QL was already damaged. of its time, but thanks to bad timing and several British QL-dealer RWAP Software or Jochen Merz
other bad corporate decisions from Sinclair, from Germany who not only deals in diverse QL
Another stumbling block was the built-in Micro- couldn’t pull through. Something that we know software products but also publishes the QL
drives. These were better than their reputation well in context to our own favourite computer: magazine “QL Today”. In Great Britain “Quanta”
gives them credit for, but couldn’t compete with the Amiga was, even more than the QL, ahead of is the worlds largest QL user group that publis-
the then new 3.5 inch floppy drives in either its time but suffered from bad marketing, resul- hes its own QL-magazine as well. The currently
storage capacity or speed (and unfortunately ting in it not having the spot in the computer most used and most powerful QL platform is
also not in reliability), that were used in the world that it should have gained. the commercially traded QPC. The “virtual QL”
Apple Macintosh and later in the Amiga and programmed by Marcel Kilgus, consists of a
Atari ST. There were soon appropriate control- Life after death 68k emulator and a specially adapted version
lers and drives offered by third parties for the of SMSQ/E and runs under Windows on any
QL but these had to be bought in addition for Similar to the Amiga, committed peripheral modern Intel hardware. Graphical user inter-
relatively large sums of money and negated the firms made sure that the Sinclair lived on after faces are available for the QL and the diver-
low selling price. An additional shortcoming was its discontinuation. In addition to the previously se QL successors as well: from “Launchpad”
the missing graphical user interface. Qdos was mentioned floppy controllers and several other from Dilwyn Jones, which runs on older QLs as
more powerful than the contemporary MacOS peripherals, there were two Amiga-like “acce- well, to QDT, an extravagant graphical interface
of the Macintosh, but was operated by keyboard lerator cards” for the QL: The Goldcard (68000 for hi-end QL systems, programmed by former
like other computers of that time. Starting with at 16 Mhz, 2Mb RAM) and the SuperGoldCard Apple employee James D. Hutkins. QL events are
the Atari ST and the Amiga, a GUI operated by (68020 at 24 Mhz and 4 Mb RAM). The QL ope- organized as well, recently an international mee-
mouse became a ‚must have’ in modern com- rating system was further developed by Tony ting for the 25th anniversary of QL and Apple
puter systems. The problem was recognized Tebben (and later by others) up to today and is Macintosh in Switzerland. At the event, organi-
by Sinclair as well and resulted in negotiations currently named SMSQ/E. zed by Urs Konig, yours truly was also present,
with Digital Research with the goal of supplying demonstrating Amiga OS4.1 on his microAOne
the QL off-the-shelf with GEM. Unfortunately the Even several QL successors came on the market, to an interested public. Apropos Amiga: Those
negotiations failed and the firm Sinclair went like the “Thor” from CST. The latest and most who would like to test Qdos for themselves are
downhill in general. Sir Clive Sinclair had used powerful QL successor is the Q60. A completely recommended to try out both QL emulators,
up considerable financial reserves in the deve- newly developed computer with a fast 68060 QDosClassic and QDOS4Amiga for 68k-Amigas
lopment of an electric vehicle, the C5. Although processor (up to 80 Mhz) and further developed (see link list).
the QL was awarded “Microcomputer of the graphics and sound capabilities. The computer
Year” in 1985 in Great Britain and had gathered became available in 1999 and was developed by In conclusion two more interesting remarks
a small but loyal community there was barely Dipl.-Ing. Peter Graf from Germany. (Manufactu- about the Sinclair QL:
any money left for marketing and promoting the ring and Sales: D&D Systems/ Great Britain). An 1) Linus Torvalds was a QL user in the 80s and
computer. The anticipated successor of the QL inquiry with D&D systems resulted in the news honed his programming skills on it before he
didn’t materialise. After the C5 had proved to be that production of the Q60 hasn’t ended but the programmed Linux and wrote his name into
a major flop Sir Clive Sinclair was forced to sell machine is in principal only built when enough computing history.
his business including all rights to the Sinclair orders are made for a minimum production run. 2) The very well known and liked adventure “The
computer to rival Amstrad. Amstrad did success- Pawn” was originally developed on the QL (as
fully put out the 8-bit computer again but let the QL Today a pure text adventure) and only later ported to
QL die without any comment because it didn’t fit other computer systems.
in the program. In the short lifespan of the com- Even today the QL scene remains very active
puter (1984-1986) only between 140,000 and but is by now too small for commercial projects. Anton Preinsack / Richard Mulder
150,000 Qls were sold worldwide. Despite that, there are still QL enthusiasts that Image source: Urs König