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ICL One Per Desk / BT Merlin Tonto

OPD / Tonto

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OPD Projects

OPD software library project
OPD documentation project
OPD monitor converter project
OPD printer adaptor project
OPD Computer One disc interface project
OPD memory card interface project

1. OPD software library project

	Aim :	Document and record all OPD related software.
	Scope :	Capture OPD software issued on non volatile, microdrive and disc formats.
	Progress :	The OPD software library currently contains around fifteen discs containing software and ROM images and is available in PCML Teledrive and QDOS 720K disc formats. Further conversion work is required to port Quill documents and Abacus spreadsheets to QL and PC formats.
	See :	OPD software page OPD ROM image discs : disc 1, disc 2, disc 3, disc 4.

2. OPD documentation project

	Aim :	Scan in OPD manuals and documentation.
	Scope :	OPD manuals issued by ICL and Sinclair, Tonto manuals issued by BT as well as third party documentation from leading suppliers such as Satellite Computing, Computer One and PCML.
	Progress :	Work in progress. A number of manuals have already been scanned in and are in the process of being OCR-ed. This is a slow and time consuming project and it may take several years to scan in all the documentation.
	See :	OPD documentation and manuals page.

3. OPD monitor converter project

	Aim :	Develop hardware to enable the OPD to be interfaced to either a colour television with a SCART socket or a PC colour monitor.
	Scope :	The adaptor needs to interface to a PC or laptop power supply and provide an RGB interface to the appropriate monitor or television.
	Progress :	Work in progress.
	See :

4. OPD printer adaptor project

	Aim :	Enable the OPD to interface to a modern centronics compatible parallel printer.
	Scope :	Adapt an inexpensive and readly available Miracle Systems QL serial to parallel convertor.
	Progress :	Work in progress.
	See :

5. OPD Computer One disc interface project

	Aim :	Provide OPD users with a more reliable storage medium to the microdrive.
	Scope :	Reverse engineer the Computer One disc interface, as this is considerably simpler than the PCML Teledrive. The Western Digital disc controller chip is readily available and can be 'borrowed' from an old QL, Atari ST or BBC. The C1 circuit uses eight TTL circuits, an eprom and a disc controller and is mounted on a double sided circuit board.
	Progress :	We have an example C1 interface and a copy of the circuit schematics and the C1 firmware on ROM image.
	See :	Disc interfaces section on the OPD accessories page Storage solutions page on the RWAP web site

6. OPD memory card interface project

	Aim :	To create a hardware interface to a CF memory card.
	Scope :	The expansion card should fit into one of the spare OPD ROM slots and emulate the left and right microdrives.
	Progress :	This project is still at the conceptional stage.
	Challenges :	A number of commercial circuits are available for interfacing eight bit microcontrollers to CF cards. More sophisticated controllers support the Windows compatible FAT filing system and contain DOS like firmware to enable eight bit micros to access the disc file system through an abstraction layer. The main challenge comes in writing the OPD device drivers and operating system hooks which replace the microdrive file system routines. A thorough understanding of the OPD's BFS operating system kernel is required to avoid system lock ups. It would be useful to study the C1 and PCML Teledrive disc intefaces and refer to the ICL programmers reference manual.
	See :	IDE and CF memory card interfaces developed for the Sinclair Spectrum. CF memory card interface developed for the Jupiter Ace. VDRIVE interface card and details of the Vinculum DOS firmware. USBWiz interface card and example user applications.