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Miracle Systems Ltd.were a manufacturer ofpersonal computerperipherals and upgrades, specializing in theSinclair QL,in the 1980s and early 1990s.
| Company type | Limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computing Electronics |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Products | Expanderam, Trump Card, Gold Card, Super Gold Card, QXL |
The company was incorporated in February 1983. Initially, they produced simple peripherals such as anRS-232toCentronicsparallel printer interface adapter. Later, they designed theExpanderam[1][2]series ofRAMexpansion cards for the QL, which led to theTrump Card[2]combined RAM expansion andfloppy diskinterface.[3]This was notable in that it mapped RAM into memory space reserved for external peripheral devices, thus allowing the QL's RAM to be expanded to 768 kB rather than the official limit of 512 kB.
TheTrump Cardwas later superseded by theGold Cardprocessor upgrade card.[4][5][6]This replaced the QL's68008CPUwith a 16 MHz68000and included 2 MB of RAM, a floppy disk interface (supporting DD, HD, and ED density 3.5 in drives) and a non-volatile real-time clock. Gold Card plugged into the QL expansion slot and required no internal modifications to the host QL.
The follow-upSuper Gold Cardhad a 24 MHz68020CPU, 4MB of RAM, and added a Centronics parallel printer interface.[4]
In 1993, Miracle launched theQXLQL emulator card forPCs.[4]This comprised a 20 MHz (later 25 MHz)68EC040processor, up to 8 MB of RAM and anFPGAon anISAcard. The QXL ran theSMSQQdos-compatibleoperating systemand used the host PC's disks, screen, keyboard, serial and parallel ports via anMS-DOS"server". Two QLAN-compatible network ports were also provided on the QXL card.
The company was finally wound up in August 2004.
References
edit- ^"QL 512K Expanderam by Miracle from Retrogames".www.retrogames.co.uk.Retrieved16 January2023.
- ^ab"OLD-COMPUTERS.COM: The Museum".www.old-computers.com.Retrieved16 January2023.
- ^MIRACLE SYSTEMS TRUMP CARD AND TOOLKIT II MANUAL(PDF).Miracle Systems. 1984. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 25 January 2021.
- ^abc"QL-Hardware".sinclairql.emuunlim.com.Retrieved16 January2023.
- ^"Miracle Systems Gold Card - Peripheral - Computing History".www.computinghistory.org.uk.Retrieved16 January2023.
- ^"Beyond Super Gold Card – Quantum Technology".13 March 2019.Retrieved16 January2023.
See also
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