Sprinter FAQ

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**** Sprinter-FAQ ****

This FAQ provides answers to the most common questions about Sprinter.
FAQ does not contain answers to purely technical questions. They can be found in the technical description of the Sprinter that I distributed. Sending me questions
for their placement in the FAQ (of course, in soap) is welcome.

Q: What are the prices for a computer and Sprinter boards in various configurations?
A: The price for a computer, in the standard configuration - 120 USD
The standard package includes a system unit in a MiniTower case,
an AT keyboard, a mouse MS-Mouse. The system unit includes a power supply,
Sprinter board, 3.5" floppy drive.
The price for a separate assembled board, with 4Mb RAM and 256 video RAM - 80 USD
All controllers, floppy drives, hard drives, keyboards, mice are located on
the board. The board also has a panel for CMOS clock - Dallas.
For an additional payment, at the prices of components, a hard drive, CD-ROM, 5.25 floppy drive, Dallas CMOS clock,
additional video RAM, Hayes-modem can be installed in the computer.
Q: Is it possible to purchase a blank board and a set of basic LSIs for self-assembly?
A: No sale of blank boards and basic components. is not available for them,
since the board is quite complicated to configure and assemble. Processor and.main
PLMs have planar pins with a pitch of less than 1 mm.

Q: What Spectrum software works on the Sprinter?
A: 99%. Some programs work in standard sprint mode.
Some require changing the mode to Pentagon-128 or Scorpion-256. Part
works only when loading standard versions of ROM firmware.
Some programs may not work due to the fact that they are written for
non-standard peripheral devices.

Q: What software is available for Sprinter and what is its price?
A: All software written for Sprinter is currently distributed
for free. The software for Sprinter includes the following:
Dos-commander. (Author: Denis Parinov)
Work with MS-DOS disks 720/1.44Mb and hard drive,
work with CD-ROM is added
Graphic editor. (Author: Denis Parinov)
For an extended graphic screen 320x256 by 256 colors.
Terminal for Haes. (Author: Alexey Gavrilenko)
The terminal works and has the ability to transmit/receive files using
X-modem, Y-modem, Z-modem and some of their varieties.
Currently, a FIDO mailer is being written on the basis of the terminal.
CD-ROM player. (Author: Denis Parinov)
RAM-Disk blocker for iS-DOS. (Author: Paul Falcon)
Printer driver for iS-DOS. (Author: Denis Parinov)
GFX viewer (Author:Anton Enin)
Views BMP, PCX, other formats are planned.
The viewer also views Spectrum screens (both with
attributes and without) and icons :-)
PCT viewer. (Author: Renat Mamedov, known as "Mr. Gluck" :-))
Various demos :-) (Authors: Anton Enin, Denis Parinov, Ivan Mak)
Last squeak :-) DooM demo (Author: Ivan Mak)
Fork Boot, autoloader of programs from TR-DOS for Sprinter.
(Author Alexey Goryachev)
Allows:
- to have on the screen the full name of the program being launched or
any other message about it;
- to create directories (groups) of programs (up to 20 directories
with 20 programs in each);
- to specify a program that starts automatically when FB starts.

From what is written:
Multi-window assembly editor. (Author: Anton Enin)
With an interface similar to Borland-Pascal
The beta version already works as an excellent text editor
Flex Navigator. - A graphical commander similar to Win-Comander.
(Author: Anton Enin)

It is worth mentioning the Spectrum programs adapted for Sprinter:
(although the value of the adaptation for some may be questionable):
F-Commander (spring mouse)
Commander DOS (spring mouse)
Font Editor (spring mouse)
Art Studio 128 (spring mouse) to Antonthank you!
ZX Word (printer driver; ytsuken for AT-keyboard)
C-Warp (library for the Sprinter text screen)

Q: What are the restrictions on the size of the hard drive?
A: The fundamental limitation on the size of the hard drive is 128 gigabytes, which
is determined by the standard for IDE-LBA mode. The maximum capacity of a hard drive
that has already been connected is 4.3 gigabytes.

Q: Why does the Sprinter have an ISA bus, and not the standard Spectrum one?
A: The Sprinter board includes almost a complete set
of peripheral devices, a hard drive controller, a floppy drive, an AT
keyboard and an MS-Mouse, so it was decided that such devices
were designed for Sprinter does not
need Spectrum and for the Spectrum bus, therefore Sprinter does not need the Spectrum bus so much.
But Sprinter needs Hayes-Modem, which has an ISA bus, which is why
ISA was chosen.

Q: But there are other devices developed for the Spectrum bus,
but not available in Sprinter. For example, XTR-Modem and General Sound. Is it possible
to connect them?
A: Yes, you can. To do this, you need an adapter from the ISA bus to the ZX bus. Such
an adapter has already been developed and allows you to connect two devices with the
ZX bus.

Q: Why doesn’t the Sprinter have a Kempston mouse, which has become the de facto standard for
Spectrum?
A: The issue with the mouse controller was resolved along the lineminimum costs.
The Z84C15 processor includes a serial
interface controller through which the mouse was connected.

Q: Where can you find out news about Sprinter?
A: News about Sprinter can also be found out through Spectrum echoes in FIDO:
ZX.SPECTRUM, SPB.SPECCY, REAL.SPECCY, as well as echoes of the ZxNet network HARWARE.ZX,
CODE.ZX, SPBZXNET.GENERAL.
Detailed information about Sprinter and the latest software versions can be obtained on
the Internet, on the website: www.atlant.ru/peters
More detailed technical information can be requested from me soap via
FIDO at the addresses 2:5030/529.24, 2:5030/776.24 or via the Internet at
the address: ivan...@mail.ru
_____________________
Last edition 08/99/18

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Wow! The Protoss are attacking my Zerlings! It's time to get going. Ivan...data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=ru&q=http://www.atlant.ru/peters&source=gmail&ust=1785433343637000&usg=AOvVaw2NWb2bUWIFgDmDc3Rvxvud">www.atlant.ru/peters *