Arnold V specs

ARNOLD V TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

full technical details for the Amstrad Plus range

Copyright Amstrad ©1990 plc

PRODUCT RANGE OVERVIEW

This project provides a more sophisticated and stylish replacement for the earlier CPC464 and CPC6128 computers. This has been achieved by:

• Redesigning the ASIC and main PCB to incorporate a number of new features
• Restyling the casework to provide a more modern appearance.

Common Features

The casework consists of a new two piece set of plastic mouldings. This contains a horizontally mounted, double-sided PCB assembly on which are mounted most of the electronics for the computer. A small, vertically mounted , daughter PCB provides the connector for a ROM cartridge. Any size ROM cartridge from 16k x 8 up to 512k x 8 can be installed. The firmware, fitted to the main PCB on earlier CPC computers, is supplied instead in a ROM cartridge.

All expansion and peripheral device connectors are mounted on the main PCB. In addition to the connectors used on the existing CPC range, there are:

• Separate connectors for two joysticks, replacing the old daisy-chain arrangement. However, the daisy chain system can still be used on the Joystick 1 connector if required.
• An additional 15-way female D-type connector will provide four analogue input channels and access to the four existing "fire" buttons. This is pin compatible with the games control port on the PC200 (PC-8) computer.
• All PCB edge connectors have been replaced by types that are easier to screen against spurious RF emission. The printer connector is a 25-way female D type, as used on the PC1640 etc, and the expansion connector is a 50-way Delta (Centronics style) type, as used for the earlier CPC range in Germany.

The 6128's TAPE socket has been replaced by a 6 pin RJ-11 type for the light gun.

The computer provides stereo sound via additional pins on the monitor connector, as well as from the stereo sound socket.

All existing CPC electrical features are provided, plus some new features. There is complete backward compatibility except that:

• The border colour is undefined at power-on reset
• The new 6128 version has no tape socket

The following new features become available once a software "lock" has been opened, thus preventing existing CPC software from accidentally invoking them:

• 16 Sprites, each consisting of 16x16 high resolution pixels, in fifteen colours separate from the main screen colours. Each sprite can be magnified in X or Y, moved around the screen , and turned on or off independent of the main screen. Sprite pixels can be transparent, and sprites have a fixed order of priority (i.e. "depth"), so that they can pass in front of each other, in front of the main screen, and behind the border.
• The colour palette has been extended to allow simultaneous display of up to 32 colours (16 main + 15 sprite + border) from a palette of 4096, rather than the previous 17 from 27.
• Additional screen controls have been added, to allow split screen operation and smooth scrolling to be used.
• An automated sound generation process allows generation of more complex sound effects with greatly reduced software overhead.
• Some other internal features to ease implementation of better games software, described in the technical specifications section.

The functions of display monitor and power supply are provided by either:

• A restyled range of monitors, consisting of a white tube monochrome monitor MM12 and an improved colour monitor CM14.
• An MP2-style modulator/power supply unit.
• A Peritel adaptor/power supply unit.

The old CPC6128 keyboard is used, except that the colour scheme has been changed and the connecting cable exits in a different location.

Amstrad 464 Plus

This variant has an integral cassette tape drive, and 64k bytes of dynamic RAM. It is supplied with a ROM cartridge containing the system firmware plus the BASIC language, disk firmware and a game, although it is not possible to select the disk firmware.

Amstrad 6128 Plus

This variant will have an integral 3" floppy disk drive (5V) plus a 36-way Delta (Centronics style) expansion socket allowing a second 3" drive to be added. The 6128 Plus is to be supplied with a ROM cartridge containing the system firmware plus the BASIC language, disk firmware and a game. 128k bytes of dynamic RAM are fitted to the main PCB.

Further Variants

Unlike the existing CPC range, the size of dynamic RAM and whether or not a disk drive is installed are separately configurable options. It is therefore possible to produce a "4128" (128k diskless) or "664" (64k with disk) variant. Also, it is possible to increase the number of analogue input channels to eight.