The Sinclair QL Forum

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

I have some floppy disks, but have never really got the system running.

Maybe this is not part of the Quest M68K CP/M

But please an extract from QL Technical Report No1 regards Quest M68K CP/M by Michael L. Jackson

Which reminds me, I have to finish the QL Technical Report scanning.

Thanks, Derek! Read through the two articles. The second one implies that Quest's CM/M 68k did not replace QDOS, but rather re-use some of its routines as part of its BIOS. Interesting - Michael says that stuff like TK2's last line recall and the QL network continue to work in CP/M 68k, which is a quite unique "feature", then

Cheers,
Tobias

The chips used in the OS card pictured are:
7805 voltage regulator
74LS133 13-input NAND gate
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
7416 hex inverter buffer/driver with 15 V open collector outputs
74LS133 13-input NAND gate
MOSTEK MK4801AN / MK4118A 1k x 8 SRAM
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
??? unreadable
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
74LS32 quad 2-input OR gate

That's a lot of glue logic for just a 1k byte static RAM chip. So I suspect maybe some sort of remapping of some of the QL's existing RAM is taking place.

Mark

1024MAK wrote:The chips used in the OS card pictured are:
7805 voltage regulator
74LS133 13-input NAND gate
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
7416 hex inverter buffer/driver with 15 V open collector outputs
74LS133 13-input NAND gate
MOSTEK MK4801AN / MK4118A 1k x 8 SRAM
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
??? unreadable
74LS14 hex Schmitt trigger inverter
74LS32 quad 2-input OR gate

That's a lot of glue logic for just a 1k byte static RAM chip. So I suspect maybe some sort of remapping of some of the QL's existing RAM is taking place.

Mark

The unreadable chip is:

SN74LS74AN: Dual D Type Flip Flop

I will try to get the system up and running and report back.

Sounds interesting, that an additional CP/M card uses QDOS plus QL RAM. None of the others have tried that. Seems, Quest wasn't too bad.

Would be interesting to know, if anyone has an old working HD drive from them. Or just to read the manual from that. And how they have organized the hard directories.

I would love more information and to try some more of the Quest hardware - I wonder if anyone has their '2 Gigabyte laser disk for the QL' - a mere snip at less than £30,000 according to the news section of QL User (December 1984/January 1985 issue)

There seems to be no details about Quest on the internet or even who was behind the company...

Possibly some kind of super hero with all that top secret and fancy gear. Maybe Bruce Wayne?

RWAP wrote:I would love more information and to try some more of the Quest hardware - I wonder if anyone has their '2 Gigabyte laser disk for the QL' - a mere snip at less than £30,000 according to the news section of QL User (December 1984/January 1985 issue)

There seems to be no details about Quest on the internet or even who was behind the company...

Hi Rich,

Not got any magazines earlier than Jan 86... but I was reading scanned Your Spectrum, which featured some QL User articles.

Once I had finshed scanning the QL Technical Report, I was going to look at QL World, but I do not have any early copies.

I have spoken with Michael, who still has the Quest CP/M disks and Quest disk interface.

He will dig out what he has and once tested is willing to lend the hardware to Derek for preservation purposes (eg, dump the ROMS!)

RWAP wrote:I have spoken with Michael, who still has the Quest CP/M disks and Quest disk interface.

He will dig out what he has and once tested is willing to lend the hardware to Derek for preservation purposes (eg, dump the ROMS!)

Hi Rich,

I have some 5.25" Quest CP/M disks, which I will have a look at to see if they are readable on a 80/40 Track drive from an old BBC micro.

Here is a picture of the disks I have, I have tried them on a 5.25" drive from an old BBC micro, but the drive is only Single sided and will not read the disks. I think I need a 80 Track Double Sided drive.

There does not seem to be a boot disk, so I am hoping the Utility Disk 1 boots into CP/M from QDOS.

I have 2 other 5.25" drives, will try them tomorrow.