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" After the CPC464. Never standing still, Amstrad went to work on two new machines: the
PCW8256 word processor and a new computer which was described
with a floppy disk drive in place of the cassette tape deck. "
(Neil Reive)
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Richard Clayton. July 2003
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Vik Olliver
nov. 2019
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The CPC that never was.
Richard Clayton and Roland Perry reveal details on the computer that never made it to market.
(RetroGamer28) Dec 2017
Having spoken to Roland Perry and Locomotive Software’s Richard Clayton, we have gained a tantalising look at what might have been for the CPC as it battled against its 8-bit rivals during the late Eighties.
The 8-bit machine would have been a colour version of the PCW with a CPC emulation mode. “It would have run CPC software in emulation mode and then allowed for more fancy things,” says Richard. “There was a lot of commonality with the PCW and that’s why some of the bit addressing in the PCW screen memory is the odd way that it is.”
The ill-fated computer would have been a colour version of the PCW with a CPC emulation mode. “It would have run CPC software in emulation mode and then allowed for more fancy things,” reveals Richard. “There was a lot of commonality with the PCW and that’s why some of the bit addressing in the PCW screen memory is the odd way that it is.”
So why was it shelved? “That was partly our fault in that we were somewhat behind with Locoscript and so had not done very much coding for the ANT,” says Richard. “Amstrad then decided it did not make sense any more, with 16-bit machines becoming more important.”
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Finally, in April 1985, the [[Atari ST]] appeared with similar features to the ANT but with a [[68000 ]] CPU instead of an accelerated Z80.
The resolution in 320x200 16 colours shares a little with CPC/CPC+ ; and the same sound chip. Its STE version has DMA sound like CPC+, and graphic Blitter.
Recently the unreleased CP/M-68k appeared finished (will it be works with some not hardware dependent PCW programs?).
GEM gui is was shared with Amstrad PC. But incompatible coded apps cause diferent 16bit CPUs
Amstrad abandoned the 3" format in the latest [[PCW]]/PCW16 models.