Scor­pio News

A greater problem is that it is necessary to remove the PSU box to obtain access to a system configuration switch, and this needs eight screws to be removed, as well as any expansion cards (Video, and Disk at this time). Luckily the switch in question mainly describes the Video configuration, and does not need to be accessed very often.

The machine contained one expansion card – a Xebec combined Hard Disk and Floppy controller, capable of supporting two hard disk drives, and two floppies of between 180K, and 1.2Mb. This was not expected, since the ‘News Release’ information stated that the disk control system would be located on the system card. The main disadvantage of this card is that it ties up one of the expansion slots, but there is also some advantage in having a pluggable disk controller, since this improves system flexibility. I understand that the system will not now be available with on-card graphics or hard disk support, since the features provided tend to change quickly, and plug-in cards are more adaptable. The floppy controller will be on the main card.

The Floppy Drive was a half height Teac High Density unit, providing 1.2Mb Formatted Capacity, but able to read 360 Kb format, (and also to write it – this is not advisable due to mismatch of head and track widths between drives, and can give rise to read errors when the data is accessed later). The Hard Disk was a half-height Micropolis unit with 44Mb formatted capacity.

The machine contained one floppy drive, and one hard disk drive. There is room (and metalwork) in the case for another floppy drive, but the area below the Winnie appeared to be occupied by a card, so presumably some re-siting would be necessary if a dual Hard Drive system were required. In order to fit another floppy, it would be necessary to get a new front panel, since there is no provision to easily remove the necessary moulded area of the existing panel. In general one floppy of the type fitted is adequate for normal processing, but a second drive can be a great help at times, and my feeling is that this drive should be external to the main system. I have more to say about this later. The hard drive(s) however is/are totally enclosed within the case.

User expansion of floppy drives would appear to be difficult since no ‘spare’ drive power connectors emerge from the PSU, and only one 34 way Floppy connector is apparent, mounted on the main circuit board, just below the Floppy. There is another 34-way floppy connector on the controller card, but I am not sure whether this can be used. There are connectors for a second hard disk drive on the Xebec Controller Card.

The keyboard is a 101-key unit typical of ‘AT’ keyboards, and felt nice in operation. There is not much more that one can say about it.