BEEP VAL

[1bvl109]

That may be what we'd all like to be true, but the reality is different.

You caught me with my pants down, Mr. Feuerbach.

Many of the decisions they made make it much harder for hackers, and edge connector hardware designers

Doubtlessly. But were they "After careful consideration we'd rather not"-, "We don't give a sh*t"- or "We have no time to even considerate this"-decisions? Or what else was the consideration behind the decision?

[1bvl109]

"We could get a full 64k of RAM?"

"With a 16k ROM?"

"No, that would cost more, we'd need some sort of paging"

"Bugger that, let's launch it as 48k. It's still more than 1kb."

I especially like that.

But we would also be able to bring out revisions of the ROM on tape. And sell memory extensions as we did with the 81! And bring out hardware extensions with new custom ROM routines! Of course there will be competition, e.g. like the race for the lowest price for the 16k RAM for the ZX81, but we will always have an edge, knowing the design already and therefore being first to the market.

[ZXDunny]

Having 64k RAM with the ROM on a media was a thing with the Amiga 1000 - Kickstart up to 1.3 came on floppy disk to be written to the "ROM" (which I use in quotes there as it was only semi-permanent; it survived a soft reboot but not a power-down). The thing was it only took a few seconds to read and you were good to go. I upgraded my kickstart a couple of times that way as I went from 1.0 to 1.3.

But for a Speccy? 16kb of tape took a while to load. Having to do that every time you booted up would be a real PITA. And as the Speccy had no soft-reset system (which would have cost more to put in - witness the 48k+'s reset switch that literally cut the power, grounding the CPU - minimal cost) the ROM would have to be re-loaded after every game you played.

It's unlikely that as attractive as a full 64kb was making it work just was either too expensive or too unfriendly to the user.

[1024MAK]

Hmm, I think something got lost, now what was it?

Ahh yes, Sir Clive Sinclair set the specifications. As the owner of the company he was responsible for deciding what features were in and which were dropped.

And you do know that Clive aimed the ZX Spectrum at the educational market and the hobbyist market. It was never intended to be a games machine.

From the limited information available, I get the impression that the ZX Spectrum ULA was the most complex ULA that Ferranti has made at the time. So it may already have been pushing the limits...

Oh, and by the way, Sinclair expected the 16K byte ZX Spectrum to be the most popular, not the 48K byte model. The 16K byte ZX Spectrum was upgradable internally or externally, hence 32K byte RAM packs do exist.

Mark

[1024MAK]

And as the Speccy had no soft-reset system (which would have cost more to put in - witness the 48k+'s reset switch that literally cut the power, grounding the CPU - minimal cost) the ROM would have to be re-loaded after every game you played.

Err, the ZX Spectrum+ reset button is connected to the existing resistor/capacitor ‘power on’ reset circuit that in turn connects to the Z80 /RESET pin. Nothing wrong with that. The only cheap bit being no proper PCB connector.

Mark

[1bvl109]

But for a Speccy? 16kb of tape took a while to load. Having to do that every time you booted up would be a real PITA.

If you don't like waiting and love the ROM so much, as to use it every day, we have a ROM to sell them. Or a microdrive.

And as the Speccy had no soft-reset system (which would have cost more to put in - witness the 48k+'s reset switch that literally cut the power, grounding the CPU - minimal cost) the ROM would have to be re-loaded after every game you played.

That's up to the programmer, whether he would give his user a magic SYSREQ or if he likes to use the shinny aditional 16k. We wash our hands of it.

It's unlikely that as attractive as a full 64kb was making it work just was either too expensive or too unfriendly to the user.

Now is this the glorious land of capitalism or not? We're gona take them for a ride and make them loving it, begging for it!
They are loading 48k on the slower and less reliable 81. They'll load 64k games and love us.

[ZXDunny]

But for a Speccy? 16kb of tape took a while to load. Having to do that every time you booted up would be a real PITA.

If you don't like waiting and love the ROM so much, as to use it every day, we have a ROM to sell them. Or a microdrive.

And as the Speccy had no soft-reset system (which would have cost more to put in - witness the 48k+'s reset switch that literally cut the power, grounding the CPU - minimal cost) the ROM would have to be re-loaded after every game you played.

That's up to the programmer, whether he would give his user a magic SYSREQ or if he likes to use the shinny aditional 16k. We wash our hands of it.

It's unlikely that as attractive as a full 64kb was making it work just was either too expensive or too unfriendly to the user.

Now is this the glorious land of capitalism or not? We're gona take them for a ride and make them loving it, begging for it!
They are loading 48k on the slower and less reliable 81. They'll load 64k games and love us.

Who was loading 48k of data on a ZX81?

[1bvl109]

Hmm, I think something got lost, now what was it?

Ahh yes, Sir Clive Sinclair set the specifications. As the owner of the company he was responsible for deciding what features were in and which were dropped.

And as such unsusceptible in every aspect to the lure of gold?

And you do know that Clive aimed the ZX Spectrum at the educational market and the hobbyist market. It was never intended to be a games machine.

So...?

From the limited information available, I get the impression that the ZX Spectrum ULA was the most complex ULA that Ferranti has made at the time. So it may already have been pushing the limits...

We can leave this at we don't know, if you want to. I just don't like to jump from "This was El Ceapos Computer!" and "There could have been restriction in the ULA" to "It didn't fit". I'll think this over, of someone say from Ferranti, Amstrad or Sinclair/Cambridge Research talks.
of course,

Oh, and by the way, Sinclair expected the 16K byte ZX Spectrum to be the most popular, not the 48K byte model. The 16K byte ZX Spectrum was upgradable internally or externally, hence 32K byte RAM packs do exist.

This doesn't contradict to expect people who want even more.

I also don't see any second thoughts, as the numbers came in.

[1bvl109]

Who was loading 48k of data on a ZX81?

E.g. I knew someone who did the housekeeping of his business (a small electronics shop) with a 64 Memopak, with self written programs. He also sold them with quite some success. He used some of this speedloaders which had a hardware add on and recommended it to his costumers.

The most reliable recorder I had was actually a stereo boombox.

[ZXDunny]

Who was loading 48k of data on a ZX81?

E.g. I knew someone who did the housekeeping of his business (a small electronics shop) with a 64 Memopak, with self written programs. He also sold them with quite some success. He used some of this speedloaders which had a hardware add on and recommended it to his costumers.

The most reliable recorder I had was actually a stereo boombox.

Yes, I am aware of memory expansions, but they weren't commonly owned by non-enthusiasts - I certainly never came across them, but read about them in the magazines of the time. The point was that if you were poor you had a 1Kb ZX81, if you were well-off financially you might have had a 16K ZX81.

So very few people had more than that - so there was very little comparison between loading times on a ZX81 (which typically loaded less data) and a Spectrum.

[alban lusitanae]

When your post gains a life of its own. So beautiful

[1bvl109]

So beautiful

It's called post kidnapping or postnapping. We'll see, who's laughing, when the ransom demand reaches you.

In totally unrelated news: Is there a bitcoin client for the Spectrum?

I had my grandniece (3) code one, but she keeps complaining that my assembler IDE is quirky.