[[Image:CPC 472 es.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Spanish Amstrad CPC 472]] [[Image:Amstrad 472 motherboard.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Left side of the CPC472 motherboard, revealing the location for the presumely 8KB expansion memory.]] [[Image:Amstrad 472 detail motherboard.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Motherboard close-up, showing the "8KB" extra memory, next to the 40037 ROM chip.]] The CPC 472 was a spanish version of the CPC [[464|464]] with additional (nonfunctional) 8 KB RAM.
== Description ==
The reason [[Amstrad|Amstrad]] released a special version for the spanish market was a law ([[RD 1250/1985|RD 1250/1985]]) that said that every computer with up to 64kb should adhere to some rules - namely, have extra keys for the spanish language, and the video hardware had to be able to display spanish characters; otherwise an extra tax would be levied.
So Amstrad soldered in an extra 8KB which was not, however, usable by the machine since it was not connected to anything else.
Later on Amstrad released a 472 with a proper spanish keyboard and the 8 extra kB as well. [[Image:Amstrad 472 motherboard.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Left side of the CPC472 motherboard, revealing the location for the presumely 8KB expansion memory.]]
Because there was no space for a new chipThe tax is said to have been at least 15, Amstrad designers took off the ROM chips000 pesetas per computer. For reference:* 15, and put it in a daughter board, along with the 4164 chip. Wires connected pins at the ROM from the daughter board to the corresponding pins on the main board000 pesetas are '''how many?''' euros. * The wires were hard enough to make difficult to turn the daughter board over and reveal the trick: no wires were connected from the DRAM chip to the main board. Even the supply pins were not connected!! CPC472 itself was sold for '''how many?''' pesetas ('''how many?''' euros)
While based on the CPC 464Because there was no space for a new chip, at least some of the 472s got Amstrad designers took off the ROM v2 chips, and put it in a daughter board, along with [[Locomotive BASIC]] 1the 4164 chip.1, which normally was built into Wires connected pins at the CPC [[664]]ROM from the daughter board to the corresponding pins on the main board. After The wires were hard enough to make difficult to turn the rule changed there was also a CPC 472 with spanish keys daughter board over and BASIC 1.0 available for a very short timereveal the trick: no wires were connected from the DRAM chip to the main board.Even the supply pins were not connected!!
The CPC 472 with spanish or british keyboard is very very rare.[[Image:Amstrad 472 detail motherboard.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Motherboard close-up, showing the "8KB" extra memory, next to the 40037 ROM chip.]]
In some interviews, Amstrad developers stated that they have never heard of the CPC472, so it's possible that the daughterboard was made by [[Indescomp]] (the spanish distributor), not by [[Amstrad]].
=== 2. CPC472 with British Keyboard ===
Faked 72K RAM to bypass the law. These units included a CPC664 ROM (not CPC474 ROM), thus supporting [[Locomotive BASIC ]] 1.1 - the spanish manual claimed that the extra 8K would be required for BASIC 1.1 - this was total nonsense, but it "explained" why users didn't have access to the extra memory: it was "reserved" for BASIC.
=== 3. CPC472 with Spanish Keyboard ===