★ HARDWARE ★ LE CPC 664 ★ The AWA Amstrad CPC664 ★ |
| CPC 664 (Your Computer) | Hardware Le Cpc 664 |
The British-manufactured CPC664 is another 4 MHz Z80A-based machine with a full 64 Kbytes of RAM in the basic unit. The keyboard is unusually long; on the left is the normal qwerty layout, to its right is a numeric keypad (which doubles as a function pad as well), above which is a cursor control diamond. On the extreme right is an integral 75 cm microfloppy disk drive. The drives are single-sided, and each side of a disk can store 180 Kbytes on 40 tracks. Each track has nine 512 byte sectors. Hidden on the right side of the unit is a volume control and power switch. The rear of the unit has three edge connectors — one for a second disk drive, one for an expansion unit, and another for a parallel printer. There is also a five-pin DIN connector for an audio cassette tape, a nine-pin joystick connector (it seems to accept Sega joysticks as well), and a 3 mm stereo socket. This latter can be programmed for left, right and centre sounds. The sound controller chip is the Gl AY-3-8912 with three voices. There is a six-pin DIN socket for either a monochrome or RGB monitor, and a socket for an external 5 volt DC power source (derived from the monitor). A flying lead from the rear of the unit connects into a corresponding socket on the monitor for 12 volts DC. The 64 Kbyte dynamic RAM is refreshed by accesses to screen memory (the top 16 Kbytes). A 6845 CRT controller generates scanning signals for the video RAM, while 32 Kbytes of ROM contain the operating system and BASIC. The screen has three resolution modes:
When first powered up, the system enters its ROM BASIC. Non-CP/M programs supplied on disk may be loaded with a RUN DISK command. These disks contain a DISK.BAS file which boots the required software. CP/M itself may be loaded with the command |CPM. Thereafter you respond to the usual A> prompt. The BASIC is powerful, and even has real-time facilities for responding to interrupts. For example, the EVERY 500, 2 GOSUB 50 statement will cause the subroutine at line 50 to execute each time interval timer 2 passes through a multiple of 500. Other facilities allow use of the peripherals (for example, PRINT #8 sends a linefeed to the parallel printer), screen graphics control and sound generation. Many of the application packages (and there are many) require CP/M. Once CP/M has control of the machine, programs are loaded by entering the filename (less the .COM file type) as usual. On the flip side of CP/M is DR Logo, which is a fun educational tool with considerable processing power. There is actually a wealth of business-oriented software available under the AmSoft label. An example is Microscript— a basic word processor with a simple and elegant command structure. Approximate recommended retail prices fortheCPC664 areas follows: with a green-screen monitor — $800; with RGB monitor — $1000. A second disk drive costs $300, and would be a good investment. Spare disks run to $80 for a box of 10. The joystick is $20, and a printer cable $40. Software prices vary from about $25 for disk-based games up to $311.85 for an integrated accounting package. The CP/M-based word processor Microscript is $158.95. YR
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