|
 |
The Memotech MTX Series |
 |
The text of the original MTX brochure is
reproduced below
Technical Specification
Hardware
Chassis
Two front-hinged black anodised brushed aluminium extrusions are
separated at the rear by a black plastic moulding.
Keyboard
A 1 mm mild steel sheet is bolted to the upper chassis and
supports 79 keys which are interconnected by an independent
p.c.b. The keys are arranged as: Standard U.K. QWERTY layout
with 57 professional typewriter keys, standard pitch and
spacing. Foreign language keyboards are available. Twelve dual
function keys are arranged as a separate numeric keypad. Eight
funation keys (16 user definable functions). Two unmarked reset
keys. Auto repeat is standard on the alpha-numeric keys.
Cpu Board
Zilog Z80A CPU operating at 4MHz.
24K of ROM which contains: MTX BASIC incorporating sophisticated
MTX LOGO-type graphics commands. MTX NODDY interactive screen
manipulation routines. FRONT PANEL DISPLAY - incorporating Z80
Assembler/Disassembler plus Z80 Register, Memory and Program
display and manipulation routines.
VIDEO DISPLAY PROCESSOR - with 16K dedicated RAM.
USER-RAM - 32K on the MTX5OO and 64k on the MTX512.
VIDEO BOARD - for television and sound signal encoding. Real
Time Clock.
CHARACTER SETS - Numeric, upper case, lower case, user-
definable characters and user-definable sprites. Resident
international character sets and appropriate keyboard layouts
for UK, USA, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. Character sets
for Denmark and Italy are also available.
Expansions
Up to two expansion boards may be added internally. These may be
Memory (RAM) Boards or the Communications Board.
MEMORY BOARDS
RAM may be increased by the addition of boards which provide
32K, 64K, 128K or 256K of memory, up to a maximum of 512k.
COMMUNICATIONS BOARD Available as an internal expansion, this
board carries two completely independent RS232 interfaces
(running at up to 19 200 baud) with full handshaking and modem
communication lines, and also the disc drive bus.
NODE/RING SYSTEM - Communications software and interfacing
enabling construction of MTX Ring Systems containing up to 255
Memotech computers.
Input/Output
Provided as standard:
|
Cassette Port (variable rate, default 2 400 baud) |
| Uncommitted parallel input/output port |
| Two joystick ports with industry standard pin-outs |
| Four channel sound under software control |
| Hi-Fi output |
| Monitor output - composite video signal (1V peak to
peak) |
| Z80 Bus Expansion Port |
| Parallel printer port (compatible with Centronics
type printers) |
| |
| Available as an expansion: |
| Communications board with two RS232 interfaces and
disc drive bus |
ROM Expansions
MTX FORTH, MTX PASCAL NODE SYSTEM software Business, Education
and Games software
Display
Colour TV and/or Video Monitor
40 column x 24 line display as standard, with optional Colour 80
column board, (FDX or HDX disc system required)
Display Facilities
FULL SCREEN HANDLING
EIGHT USER DEFINABLE WINDOWS
VIRTUAL SCREENS SCREEN FORMATS
Text: 40 x 24 characters, Text with graphics: 32 x 24 text with
256 x 192 pixels in 16 colours
Graphics Facilities
Up to 32 independently controllable user definable sprites, plus
pattern plane and backdrop plane. High level sprite-orientated
graphics commands.
Suitable Printers
Centronics-type parallel printers
RS232 serial printers (requires Communications Board)
Power Supply Unit
Input: 220/240 VAC 50/60 Hz or 110/115 VAC 50/60 Hz. Output:
22.5 VAC~ 1A tapped at 18V and 9V. The PSU is double insulated
and has a side mounted rocker switch which is internally
illuminated.
Software
MTX BASIC
The BASIC resident in ROM contains the standard commands offered
by most microcomputers, and in addition is extended with a
number of reserved words designed to: a) allow easy manipulation
of the display, b) enable a highly structured form of
programming and c) enable assembly language programs to be run
from within BASIC programs.
MTX Graphics Commands
Sophisticated graphics manipulation commands are incorporated.
These commands do not replace, but are in addition to the normal
graphics commands offered by BASIC
MTX NODDY
NODDY provides a method of programming to display information or
ask questions and then move on to another display, depending on
the previous response. Complete screens may be named and
constructed and later called from within BASIC programs.
Assembler/Disassembler
An assembler/disassembler is included to enable fast and
efficient development of machine code programs Machine code may
be included within a BASIC program and are assembled as the
program is run.
Front Panel Display
The front Panel Display is an interactive program which displays
and allows manipulation of the contents of the computer's memory
and registers. Allows simple and effective machine code
debugging.
Command Words
MTX BASIC
| BAUD |
ELSE |
LIST |
MVSPR |
| CLOCK |
STEP |
LOAD |
SPRITE |
| INK |
CSR |
PRINT |
CTLSPR |
| PAPER |
DIM |
OUT |
NODE |
| EDIT |
GOSUB |
POKE |
GENPAT |
| GOTO |
LIST |
READ |
PHI |
| IF |
NEW |
SOUND |
VIEW |
| LET |
ON |
PLOT |
RESTORE |
| LPRINT |
PANEL |
TO |
ROM |
| NEXT |
RETURN |
REM |
EDITOR |
| NODDY |
SAVE |
CLS |
DSI |
| PLOD |
DRAW |
ASSEM |
ANGLE |
| PAUSE |
THEN |
AUTO |
SNDBUF |
| RAND |
CONT |
VS |
ARC |
| RUN |
CLEAR |
CRVS |
LINE |
| STOP |
DATA |
ATTR |
|
| VERIFY |
FOR |
COLOUR |
|
| CIRCLE |
INPUT |
ADJSPR |
|
MTX Operands
MTX Functions
| AND |
ASC |
PI |
SQR |
| ABS |
RND |
OR |
USR |
| EXP |
NOT |
ATN |
LEN |
| SGN |
COS |
LN |
MOD |
| TAN |
INT |
SIN |
|
| VAL |
PEEK |
INP |
|
MTX Strings
| CHR$ |
RIGHT$ |
TIME$ |
| LEFT$ |
INKEY$ |
GR$ |
| MID$ |
STR$ |
SPK$ |
Front Panel Display commands
| B followed by Y (i.e. BASIC, then Y/N) returns user
to BASIC |
| C Clears the List screen |
| D displays memory in hexadecimal |
| G (go) runs a block of code defined by the user |
| I cycles the display between ASCII characters or
code |
| L Iists memory contents from given hex address |
| L. Iists memory contents from Program Counter
address |
| M moves, a block of memory to a given address |
| R alters contents of a given Register |
| S Execute a single instruction at Program Counter |
| T as above but treats Calls as one instruction |
| X displays alternate Register set |
MTX Assembler commands
| E (line number) allows you to edit the line number
entered |
| L (line number) lists from the line number entered
|
| T. moves to top of code |
| T. <return> followed by L. lists from top of code. |
| P prints to printer |
| B returns to BASIC and assembles the
code |
MTX Series Disk Based Systems
FDX Floppy Disc System
HDX Winchester Disc System
Both systems have the following features:
| A 19 inch wide chassis comprising four black
anodised brushed aluminium extrusions. The chassis
contains a card cage which can accomodate: |
| One Computer expansion board |
| One Colour 80 column board |
| Four Silicon Disc memory boards |
| One floppy disc controller board |
| An integral power supply |
| Inputs can be 240/220 VAC or 110/115 VAC 50/60 Hz |
| Parallel port for bus expansion |
| A licence to use the Digital Research Inc. CP/M
operating system is provided with the FDX and HDX
systems as is NewWord word processing and SuperCalc
spreadsheet analysis |
| |
| |
80 Column Board
.Mounted in the FDX or HDX systems the board permits the use
of colour programs requiring an 80 column screen. RGB monitor
output with selectable positive/negative sync.
Monochrome video output Single channel sound, Light pen input
Screen display formats:
| 80 columns x 24 lines text (max) 160 x 96 graphics
mode |
| Two alternate 96 element character sets |
| ROM based graphics characters Teletext compatibility |
| High speed glitch-free screen update (average 25 000
baud) |
| The Colour 80 column board provides a complete
emulation of a CP/M terminal via ROM software, and
features: |
| |
| Full cursor control Vector plot, point plot |
| Powerful editing facilites with screen dump |
| Complete attribute control for colour and monochrome
displays |
Silicon Discs
These are a quarter or one megabyte fast access RAM boards
which are full emulators of CP/M drives 0 to 13. Four Silicon
Discs can be mounted within the HDX of FDX chassis, providing
from one to four megabytes per card frame. However, the Silicon
Disc controllers can supervise four logical drives, of up to
eight megabytes each giving a maximum silicon storage of 32
megabytes. This is in addition to the 4 five and a quarter
and/or eight inch conventional floppy disc drives handled by the
floppy disc controller board. Numerous advantages indude: Speed
up to five times faster than a Winchester disc, and fifty times
faster than a floppy disc. A dramatic increase in efficiency of
proven eight bit CP/M software to 16/32 bit software levels,
obviating the need for complex and costly memory management
techniques. Permits single floppy diso CP/M system which is
ideal for database manipulation, word processing and
compilation. Greatly reduces disc wear and prolongs life of
mechanical disc drives, enhancing reliability.
Floppy Disc Controller Board
This board uses the full Western Digital 1791 chip set and
supports most CP/M floppy drives1 types 0 to 13, which range
from single sided single density five and a quarter inch
floppies to double sided double density eight inch floppies.
|
