2 ms·
The most interesting things here are disk images for the Master "512", which despite the name was a fairly normal Master 128 only with the addition of an Intel
by LeoPanthera 2y ago
The most interesting things here are disk images for the Master "512", which despite the name was a fairly normal Master 128 only with the addition of an Intel 80186 co-processor, carrying 512k of RAM on its own board.
It could boot "DOS Plus", a DOS clone from Digital Research that included the GEM desktop.
Unfortunately it was compatible with very little DOS software, being system call compatible only up to MS-DOS 2.1, and having a non-standard keyboard and display.
As far as I know Acorn only shifted any significant amount of stock after they slashed the price, and I wonder even then how many buyers thought they were getting a BBC Master with 512k of RAM. I suspect most of the copro cards went unused.
Today, if you have a Master 128 and want to "upgrade" it, you can run PiTubeDirect on a Raspberry Pi which will cause it to emulate the appropriate 80186 (amongst other choices), so you can plug it into the Tube socket on the Master: https://github.com/hoglet67/PiTubeDirect https://github.com/hoglet67/PiTubeDirect