qlwiki:sandy_futura [Sinclair QL Wiki]

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 ====== Sandy FUTURA ======
An unreleased QL successor based on the [[qlwiki:QLT]] design by [[qlwiki:Tony Tebby]].


Hardware designed in Italy by [[qlwiki:Sandy]], Software in the UK by [[qlwiki:Qjump]].


The design objectives were to produce a fast, easy to work with system which would invite expansion by providing designed-in interfacing (rather than the added on afterthought arrangements usually found on home computers at the time).


The Futura was designed around a full Motorola 68000 processor (optionally a 68010 could be used), on a circuit board measuring just 215x225mm.  It was to include QL networking, up to 2 3.5" floppy disk drives, plus a 3.5" hard disk, and up to two double Eurocards or QL expansion cards, with an external PC keyboard, MIDI port, mouse controller, parallel port and two serial ports.


The processor bus was expanded to full VME standard, and a separate bus provided the ability for the display processor to control RAM access for high speed access. The system was designed to allow up to seven plug-in ROM/Peripheral modules using reduced bus 48 pin connectors (each supporting up to 256K of address space), and RAM could be upgraded from 512K to 8MB, with the display driver providing 640x380 graphics with 16 colours, with an option fast RAM pallet (supporting up to 65536 colours).


In 2008 an Italian retro computer enthusiast resurrected the remaining prototypes from the hardware designer. The remainders are stored in a wooden box.


In 2010 [[qlwiki:Urs Koenig]] visited Italy to open Pandora’s box.\\ 
//https://youtu.be/0BU7u07Pe6A|Watch this video on You Tube// 


Visit the [[http://www.qlvsjaguar.homepage.bluewin.ch/QL_FUTURA.html|Futura - Pandora's box opening web page]] for the full story and documents.