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q40.de - Overview

Q40 and Q60 are Sinclair QL successors that are more than 100 times faster, have many thousands of colours, high resolution graphics, stereo sound, fast harddisks and modern peripheral capabilities. New complete computers that run your QL software and open the door to unreached 68060 performance and advanced applications.

A complete Q40 or Q60 System is a Q40 or Q60 Mainboard in combination with IDE Harddisk and HD Floppy mounted in an industry standard case with power supply, and a MF-102 keyboard.

QL Compatibility

QL screen modes 4 and 8 are directly hardware compatible, ignoring mode 8 flashing. The 50 Hz frame interrupt is available. Memory map and interrupt handling are similar, but ports have changed. Microdrives and the slow QL network are not supported.

There are three different operating systems available:

  • SMSQ/E - The QDOS compatible, but faster and more modern operating system. Allows you to run the majority of QL programs, has a much improved BASIC. SMSQ/E supports a lot of the advanced Q40 and Q60 hardware capabilities including full highcolor graphic drivers and sampled sound!

  • QDOS Classic - A multitasking operating system with good compatibility for older QL programs. Includes harddisk and sound support. It was the first operating system for the Q40. Full 68060 support. Cache Management. Source code included.

  • 68k Linux - The free Unix-like multiuser / multisession operating system. Q40 and Q60 are the first and only QL style computers that run Linux. Linux on the Q40 and Q60 offers you an endless amount of application software, including X Window System, full Internet access, graphical Webbrowser, CD-ROM writing, MP3 player. There is a special Q60 Linux distribution with graphical installation tool available on CD-ROM. Kernel version 2.4.18 or 2.4.21.