| QL News |
DETAILS of the Sinclair-approved QCOM communications package for the QL have now been revealed. The device, made by Spectrum VTX 5000 makers OE of Cumbria, will be available in three parts; the first is the £75.95 QCON unit, which contains software to run the entire system; the QMOD modem can be stacked on top of QCON and costs another £75.95; finally, for £49.95, an auto-call module called QCALL can be positioned atop the other two.
QCON, the software heart of QCOM, upgrades the meagre serial capacities of the QL such that ports can be independently configured to all the standard data rates between 75 and 9600 baud. The module also supports the VT100 communications protocol, giving the QL a valuable new role as a terminal to widely used minicomputers.
An RS232 port allows QCON to employ any commercially available modem, but most users will prefer to remove a plastic plate on the upper surface of QCON to allow the stacking of the matching QMOD modem, a unit offering 1200/75 and 1200/1200 Prestel-orientated communications.
As an added luxury, the QCALL module allows look-no-hands operation of QMOD - even in the owner's absence - by installing an auto-dial and auto-answer facility under the software control of the QL.
The whole QCOM system is emphatically at the high quality/highish price end of the comms market, and OE boss Martin Ansell is well aware that other manufacturers are likely to leap in with cheap, modem-only solutions for the QL.
"We've deliberately aimed for the professional and educational sector with QCOM, people who can't afford corruption of their data with inferior systems."
An area of Micronet 800 dedicated to QL users has already been established, offering very wonderful news, features and software-down-the-phone; the latter feature will include OE utilities to expand the QL modem, and the software library of the Independent QL User Group.
WHAT IS claimed as 'the first product to transform the QL into a true business computer' has been launched by QL+ Ltd of Esher.
The device is an add-on card containing a Z80 chip and 64K of RAM which plugs into the QL main expansion port and enables it to run software written for the CP/M-80 operating system.
CP/M-80 has the largest software library in the world, and this should now be portable to QL microdrive format - a task rumoured to be currently occupying the software arm of giant retailer WH Smith.
The card also boasts two software configurable 8-bit ports, with attendant 64K of print buffer space.
Due for imminent availability, the device will cost £199.
ONLY owners of new QLs and members of the £35.00 per year Sinclair-sponsored QLUB organisation get upgrades of the bundled Psion software. However, the emphatically non-Sinclair Independent QL User Group is encouraging its members to return QLs under the Sale of Goods Act, using their refund to buy a new machine with the improved programs.
Nigel Searle, Sinclair Managing Director, was unconcerned when I tackled him about the issue: "We'll have to look at individual machines and see whether they met the standards of merchantability at the time they were sold. We will test machines which come back; if they meet our criteria we're going to say, 'That's of merchantable quality, that's what you bought, that's what you got.
"I can understand how people who felt they must be first on the block to have a new product might then feel if they have a machine with which they have problems - they've been used as guinea pigs. This certainly wasn't our intention, and I think that most people are realistic enough to know that if you wait until 1985 or 1986 or 1987, you'll get more value for your money.
"In any case, I'm not worried that the attitude of the Group is indeed going to lead to a massive return of QLs. We do regular telephone surveys and we find that most people are very happy indeed with the machines."
The chat with Nigel Searle took place at ICL's launch of its One Per Desk 'executive workstation', which employs much of the QL technology.
Sinclair has licensed GST makers of the alternative 68K/OS operating system for the QL, as distributors of the QL board to hardware manufacturers who might want to incorporate it in other machines. But the ICL deal is not in that category.
"We're not selling boards to ICL," Searle explained. "They've used some of the components from the QL -notably some custom chips.
"They've also written their own operating system; although the OPD has the same sort of computing power as the QL, it's a great deal more besides, and they've written an OS to support that."
QL correspondent Sid Smith is news editor of Micronet 800