HOME
*





ZX Microdrive
ZX Microdrive unit The ZX Microdrive is a magnetic-tape data storage system launched in July 1983 by Sinclair Research for its ZX Spectrum home computer. It was proposed as a faster-loading alternative to the cassette and cheaper than a floppy disk, but it suffered from poor reliability and lower speed. Microdrives used tiny cartridges containing a endless loop of magnetic tape, which held a minimum of 85  kB and performed a complete circuit in approximately eight seconds. The Microdrive technology was later also used in the Sinclair QL and ICL One Per Desk personal computers. Development Microdrive cartridge with case It is claimed the Microdrive concept was originally suggested by Andrew Grillet at an interview with Sinclair Research in 1974. Grillet proposed "a version of the Learjet Stereo 8 system, modified to allow two 64k core images per track for roll-out roll-in swapping using the KUTS protocol". Grillet was offered a better-paying job at Xerox, and neve ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Sinclair ZX Microdrive White BG
Sinclair may refer to: Places * Lake Sinclair, near Milledgeville, Georgia * Sinclair, Iowa * Sinclair, West Virginia * Sinclair, Wyoming * Sinclair Mills, British Columbia * Sinclair Township, Minnesota * Sinclair, Manitoba People * Sinclair (surname), list of people with this surname * Clan Sinclair, Scottish family * Lord Sinclair, a title in the Peerage of Scotland * Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951), Nobel Prize-winning American writer * Sinclair (singer), stage name of French singer-songwriter Mathieu Blanc-Francard (born 1970) * Sir Clive Sinclair, an English entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s - including ZX Spectrum computers. Companies * Sinclair Broadcast Group, operator of American television stations * Sinclair Oil Corporation, American petroleum company * Sinclair Radionics Ltd, British electronics company founded in 1961 * Sinclair Research Ltd, British consumer electronics co ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Kansas City Standard
The Kansas City standard (KCS), or ''Byte'' standard, is a data storage protocol for standard cassette tapes at . It originated in a symposium sponsored by Byte (magazine), ''Byte'' magazine in November 1975 in Kansas City, Missouri to develop a standard for the storage of digital microcomputer data on inexpensive consumer quality cassettes. The first systems based on the standard appeared in 1976. One variation on the basic standard is CUTS, which is identical at 300 bit/s, but with an optional 1200 bit/s mode. CUTS is the default encoding used by several later machine families, including those from Acorn Computers, Acorn and the MSX. MSX added a higher 2400 bit/s mode that is otherwise similar. The 1200 bit/s mode of CUTS was used as the standard for cross-platform BASICODE distribution. KCS originated from the earliest days of the microcomputer revolution, among other prolific protocols. Most home computers of the era have List of cassette tape data storag ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Daisy Chain (electrical Engineering)
In electrical and electronic engineering, a daisy chain is a wiring scheme in which multiple devices are wired together in sequence or in a ring, similar to a garland of daisy flowers. Daisy chains may be used for power, analog signals, digital data, or a combination thereof. The term ''daisy chain'' may refer either to large scale devices connected in series, such as a series of power strips plugged into each other to form a single long line of strips, or to the wiring patterns embedded inside of devices. Other examples of devices which can be used to form daisy chains are those based on Universal Serial Bus (USB), FireWire, Thunderbolt and Ethernet cables. Signal transmission For analog signals, connections usually consist of a simple electrical bus and, especially in the case of a chain of many devices, may require the use of one or more repeaters or amplifiers within the chain to counteract attenuation (the natural loss of energy in such a system). Digital signal ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Kilobit Per Second
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multiples of bits per second (bit/s) and bytes per second (B/s). For example, the data rates of modern residential high-speed Internet connections are commonly expressed in megabits per second (Mbit/s). Standards for unit symbols and prefixes Unit symbol The ISQ symbols for the bit and byte are ''bit'' and ''B'', respectively. In the context of data-rate units, one byte consists of 8 bits, and is synonymous with the unit octet. The abbreviation bps is often used to mean bit/s, so that when a ''1 Mbps'' connection is advertised, it usually means that the maximum achievable bandwidth is 1 Mbit/s (one million bits per second), which is 0.125 MB/s (megabyte per second), or about 0.1192 MiB/s (mebibyte per second). The Insti ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Units ( SI) is more precise:The second ..is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency, Δ''ν''Cs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom, to be when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1. This current definition was adopted in 1967 when it became feasible to define the second based on fundamental properties of nature with caesium clocks. Because the speed of Earth's rotation varies and is slowing ever so slightly, a leap second is added at irregular intervals to civil time to keep clocks in sync with Earth's rotation. Uses Analog clocks and watches often ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Ant Attack
''Ant Attack'' is a ZX Spectrum computer game by Sandy White, published by Quicksilva in 1983. It was converted to the Commodore 64 in 1984. While ''Zaxxon'' and ''Q*bert'' previously used isometric projection, ''Ant Attack'' added an extra degree of freedom (ability to go up and down instead of just north, south, east and west), and it may be the first isometric game for personal computers. The same type of isometric projection was used in Sandy White's later ''Zombie Zombie''. It was also one of the first games to allow players to choose their gender. Gameplay The player chooses whether to control the character of "Girl" or "Boy", who then enters the walled city of Antescher to rescue the other, who has been captured and tied up somewhere in the city. The city is inhabited by giant ants which chase and attempt to bite the player. The player can defend themselves by throwing grenades at the ants; however, these can also harm the humans. Once the hostage is rescued, the two mus ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Quicksilva
Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s. Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1979. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service. Quicksilva mainly released games for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, but also did conversions and some original games for the VIC-20, Dragon 32/64, Oric-1/ Atmos, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron home computers. One of their earliest successful titles was a '' Star Raiders''-style game entitled ''Time-Gate'' which reached the top of the ZX Spectrum charts in December 1982. Amongst the company's other successes were Jeff Minter's ''Gridrunner'' (1983), '' Bugaboo'' (1983, a.k.a. ''La Pulga'') and ''Fred'' (1983, titled " ''Roland on the Ropes''" on the Amstrad), two titles licensed from Spanish software house Indescomp S.A. Sandy White's ''Ant Attack'' (1983) for the ZX Spectrum featured revolutionary 3-D graphics for which a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spans formal techniques and practical considerations, including data modeling, efficient data representation and storage, query languages, security and privacy of sensitive data, and distributed computing issues, including supporting concurrent access and fault tolerance. A database management system (DBMS) is the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and analyze the data. The DBMS software additionally encompasses the core facilities provided to administer the database. The sum total of the database, the DBMS and the associated applications can be referred to as a database system. Often the term "database" is also used loosely to refer to any of the DBMS, the database system or an appli ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Word Processor
A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word processors are word processor programs running on general purpose computers. The functions of a word processor program fall somewhere between those of a simple text editor and a fully functioned desktop publishing program. However, the distinctions between these three have changed over time and were unclear after 2010. Background Word processors did not develop ''out'' of computer technology. Rather, they evolved from mechanical machines and only later did they merge with the computer field. The history of word processing is the story of the gradual automation of the physical aspects of writing and editing, and then to the refinement of the technology to make it available to corporations and Indi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Tasword
''Tasword'' was a word processor for the ZX Spectrum developed by Tasman Software. The first version was released in 1982 and spawned two major revisions in addition to several add-ons and, later, tailored versions for the +2 and +3 Spectrum models, the SAM Coupé, the MSX, the Timex Sinclair 2068 and the Amstrad CPC range. Many of the features of modern word processors were included, such as justification, word wrap and page header. Features such as bold text and italic type were achieved through sending special escape sequences to a printer. It featured the ability to use a 64 characters per line font in the standard ZX Spectrum screen. Add-on products included TasMerge for mail merge functionality (which was later included in Tasword III and later versions) and TasSpell for spell checker. Releases ZX81 *Tasword - 1982 ZX Spectrum *Tasword Two "The Word Processor" - 1983 ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/spectrum/company-pics/TasmanSoftware/TasmanSoftwareCatalogueSpring19 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


ZX Interface 1
ZX may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Kamen Rider ZX (pronounced "Zed-Cross"), the tenth fictional superhero in the "Kamen Rider" franchise * ''Mega Man ZX'', a video game for the Nintendo DS * ''ZX Tunes'', remastered soundtracks of the "Mega Man ZX" game * '' Z/X'', Japanese collectible card game Businesses and brands * ZX Auto, also known as Zitsubishi, a Chinese SUV and truck manufacturer * Air Georgian (IATA airline code ZX) * Chinasat, a family of communications satellites (from the transliteration, Zhongxing) * Citroën ZX, a car model * Kawasaki Ninja series motorcycles (model designation codes ZX and ZX-R) * ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...
, home computers produced by Sinclair {{disambiguation ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




ZX Microdrive, Opened, Compared To Compact Cassette
ZX may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Kamen Rider ZX (pronounced "Zed-Cross"), the tenth fictional superhero in the "Kamen Rider" franchise * ''Mega Man ZX'', a video game for the Nintendo DS * ''ZX Tunes'', remastered soundtracks of the "Mega Man ZX" game * '' Z/X'', Japanese collectible card game Businesses and brands * ZX Auto, also known as Zitsubishi, a Chinese SUV and truck manufacturer * Air Georgian (IATA airline code ZX) * Chinasat, a family of communications satellites (from the transliteration, Zhongxing) * Citroën ZX, a car model * Kawasaki Ninja series motorcycles (model designation codes ZX and ZX-R) * ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...
, home computers produced by Sinclair {{disambiguation ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]