QL2020

[qbits]

Happy New Year to you all….

I start the year as usual with odd thoughts on what the future might bring, as to where we might be heading and then with 2020 just over the horizon I went off on a tangent as you do! For some reason 23 has always been a significant number in my life. My mother was in her 23rd year giving birth to me. I got married at 23, and that after dating my future partner for 23 months and again our birth dates are 23 days apart.

So as to another random thought how about a new Quantum Leap the Retro QL 2020 or just QL 2020. The build design being a reduced QL by chopping the micro drive section. The bottom being replaced with one of a slimmer depth and sloping, higher at the back than the front. The keyboard layout the same except for two extra keys either side of a reduced in length spacebar.

The back edge from Function key end, a slot for a memory card, then HDMI video/audio, four USB ports, sockets for Mic and Stereo Earphones ending with Power socket and on/off reset button. The HDMI output capable of handling screen resolutions up to 1920 x 21280k pixels, Stereo sound output via external monitor speakers. Plugging in headphones automatically cuts sound output via the HDMI. The USB ports, one for attached mouse, one for a Printer. Possibly include WiFi, if not an external USB attached one. Other devices that could be attached an external hard drive or CD/DVD player or a Floppy disk drive for backwards compatibility.

Internal hardware a fast processor possibly quad. A minimum of 32Gbytes of internal storage and 2GByte of RAM a good portion used for dual screen memory so as one is being updated the other is flipped for monitor output. Maybe the way to go would be revamping a modified QL case and utilising a Raspberry PI with a few add-ons.

On power up it would load QDOS and the Pointer environment of course, plus the SuperBASIC interpreter with a self compiler, then any additional drivers, progs etc. as required. Added SuperBASIC commands CRUN and CSAVE where RUN starts a BASIC program CRUN will self compile before running as an independent app or QL Job. CSAVE would likewise compile and save the code as an EXECutable file.

So could it be achieved and be available from say December 2020 hang on that leaves wait… just 23months!

Well if I win a few million on the lottery maybe, just maybe it might happen.

QDOS

[Cristian]

[NormanDunbar]

Love the idea.

One minor problem though, CRUN is a command on the Metacomco ROM for their C compiler which runs compiled C programs and allows passing of parameters, redirections etc in Unix style - none of which existed at the time.

Happy 2019 everyone.

Cheers,
Norm.

[kordics]

Happy New Year to all QLers!

qbits, thank you for starting this topic! It is always pleasant to think about the future of our favorite computer.

Your proposal is very interesting and inspiring. Although, I would not cut off the "microdrive" part of the QL2020. I would keep it and instead of 2 microdrives I would put 2 SD card slots. Original design of the QL is to have dual media and I find it sound both from the functional and design point of view. Also, one of the strong points of QL was, and still is, its fantastic design created by the late Rick Dickinson. So, I think that we should keep the original form of the QL, because we should maintain visual continuity with the original in all possible future updates of the QL.

Tanti saluti,
Stevan