ZX Spectrum Next Issue 2 ships out, chip shortages be damned
- Reference: 1705664051
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/19/return_of_spectrum_next/
- Source link:
The [1]ZX Spectrum Next is a modern recreation – and, crucially, improved version – of the classic British home computer, Sinclair Research's [2]ZX Spectrum . Forty-two years ago, The Reg FOSS desk cut its computing teeth on a ZX Spectrum 48. In August 2020, chafing under Czech lockdown, we got a [3]second chance to get the modernized version. Now, finally, the machines are shipping and many delighted middle-aged Brits got one just before the holidays. We talked to the project's founder, [4]Henrique Olifiers , about how it went – and where it might go, er, Next.
The Reg: First things first … if I may be selfish, over here in the Isle of Man, I am still waiting for my Spectrum Next! When will the machines ship to the Rest of the World?
[5]
HO: While there are some inquiries on customer support, the majority of them are from "RotW regions" for which the Next is yet to ship – hopefully this week. The rest is mostly shipping issues (lost parcels, wrong addresses and so forth). In terms of things that actually went wrong, we have less than 30 tickets so far, which is fairly good going on a 5,500 run of machines. It isn't perfect, but not too bad either.
[6]
[7]
The Reg: I know you have had horrible problems with the global [8]chip shortage .
HO: We had a lot of issues with chip and parts shortages during the pandemic lockdowns. The majority of the trouble we managed to navigate by switching to similar or equivalent parts, adjusting the design as necessary. The big one was AMD/Xilinx stopping the shipment of Spartan 6 FPGAs without proper notice and no end in sight for the resuming of production, forcing us to redesign the entire board to operate with the Artix-7 FPGA instead. It also meant recreating the entire firmware, as even its IDE is a different one from the Spartan series. This was a serious undertaking which could only be met by utterly dedicated and capable people like Alvin Albrecht, who quickly familiarized himself with the new platform and managed to successfully redevelop and test the firmware in time for shipping.
[9]
ZX Spectrum Next
The Reg: You had to switch to a higher-capacity – and therefore more expensive – FPGA, is that right?
HO: The Artix-7 is a more expensive and capable chip compared to the Spartan-6, thus there was an extra cost incurred – which we managed to thankfully absorb without passing on to the backers. The silver lining is that, with the extra capabilities of the Artix-7, we managed to expand the ZX Spectrum Next functionalities a bit more while maintaining retrocompatibility throughout.
[10]
The Reg: How are you feeling as you approach the end of [11]KS2 ? Exhausted, I am sure.
HO: It's fair to say the entire team is on the exhausted side of things. We still need to ship the Spectrum Next to Asia, Americas, Africa and Oceania, an unforeseen delay thanks to couriers classifying the watch coin-cell (running the real time clock) as a dangerous battery, presenting a fire risk. They see the word "lithium" and freak out.
The Reg: I've seen a lot of people online asking where they can buy a Next, not realizing that it was crowdfunded and built-to-order, rather than some retail product. Do you think there will be a "KS3" – a third issue of the machine?
[12]
HO: Other than this last challenge, we should be getting ready for some downtime before entertaining a third crowdfunding campaign for a new batch – as the demand is certainly present: there are more people asking for it today than there were between the first and the second campaign. It certainly bodes well for the future of the platform!
The Reg: The core design is open source? As I understand it, that is how there are third-party Spectrum compatibles computers for [13]people to build themselves .
[14]The 'nothing-happened' Y2K bug – how the IT industry worked overtime to save world's computers
[15]How Sinclair's QL computer outshined Apple's Macintosh against all odds
[16]The New ROM Antics – building the ZX Spectrum 128
[17]Eben Upton on Sinclair, Acorn, and the Raspberry Pi
HO: Until we do an Issue 3 model, we hope other people pick up the slack with their wonderful projects such as [18]N-GO and [19]XBerry Pi , compatible boards made thanks to the open nature of the project. The goal of the ZX Spectrum Next is to keep the Speccy alive, and there's no better way to accomplish this with an open source approach driven by the community.
There are a lot of wonderful projects and ideas coming from the team and collaborators on a daily basis. As long as we are making people happy, we'll keep on making the Spectrum Next and driving its future into the horizon. It's challenging, yes, but also fun and rewarding in equal measures. Watching people putting their computers under Christmas trees, creating new games, getting kids to learn about coding on it … It makes it all worth it.
The Reg: The Spectrum Next boots off an SD card which contains the software that programs the FPGA chip to tell it how to run Spectrum software. Does that mean that the Issue 1 and Issue 2 Spectrum Next need different boot media?
HO: It's the same boot images, files, SD cards etc. for all machines. Only the firmware changes, which you can, and do, update seldom. In this case, yes, it's a different firmware file for the Issue 1 and Issue 2 Spectrum Nexts.
The Reg: There is a slot in the Spectrum Next to connect a Raspberry Pi Zero, and machines with this pre-installed are called "Accelerated" models. What does the Pi actually do?
HO: The RasPi accelerator does the same in the KS2 model as it does in the KS1: things like [20]TZX file playback etc. There's potential to do a lot, lot more. There are now co-processors being tested and developed by the community. It's really the start of the journey for the accelerator at this stage, mostly because the Next itself is capable of doing quite a lot without it so far.
The Reg: What benefit is there in having a Pi Zero? Is it worth fitting your own, if your machine doesn't have one?
HO: Right now, only if you want to load TZX tape images. Otherwise the uses are limited.
The Reg: But for those who missed out, and want to get a real Next, with its case designed by [21]the late great Rick Dickinson rather than one of the compatibles – there is going to be a third production run?
HO: Yep! We are already planning it, but not quite confirmed just yet. ®
[22]Youtube Video
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.specnext.com/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2012/04/23/retro_week_sinclair_zx_spectrum_at_30/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/13/spectrum_next_issue_2_crowdfunding/
[4] https://www.diceeurope.org/dice_speakers/details.asp?idSpeaker=353
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZaqqvzoFZTNmWSs9I6I2VAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZaqqvzoFZTNmWSs9I6I2VAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZaqqvzoFZTNmWSs9I6I2VAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/25/chip_shortage_report/
[9] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/01/18/zxspectrumnext.jpg
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZaqqvzoFZTNmWSs9I6I2VAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spectrumnext/zx-spectrum-next-issue-2
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZaqqvzoFZTNmWSs9I6I2VAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/06/diy_sinclair_clones/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/y2k_feature/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/ql_legacy_at_40/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/15/opinion_column_zxspectrum_128/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/15/eben_upton_on_sinclair_acorn/
[18] https://store.activeconsult.co.uk/shop/ols/categories/n-go
[19] https://zxrenew.co.uk/Xberry-Pi-p596973674
[20] https://worldofspectrum.net/TZXformat.html
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2018/04/26/rick_dickinson_dies/
[22] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbFYoWTdy3Y
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: SAM Coupé compatibility, anybody?
The SAM Coupé was interesting but it is not part of the official Sinclair\Amstrad line, the comaptibility was via a skeleton ROM written by MGT that worked for most but not all things, or copying a ROM from your own existing Speccy 48K - there was no licensed ROM image; and it sold in very small numbers - so there's less interest in expending the effort to emulate or replicate it.
That said; I believe there have been preliminary attempts to create a Coupé "core" (FPGA implementation), but nothing that's finished yet.
Re: SAM Coupé compatibility, anybody?
As someone who had one, it ended up being a bit of a disappointment.
You needed a newer ROM to fix bugs and also Master DOS and Master BASIC to finish off the built-in DOS and BASIC. Also the Z80B had to work against memory contention as the whole of the memory was contended so the 6MHz on paper barely ended up faster than a Spectrum, but if you used the full-colour or hi-res screen modes it still had to move 24K around as there was no help from the ASIC as there was no hardware scrolling, sprites, etc... Even games like Prince of Persia or Robot Monsters lagged despite having fixed backgrounds.
That said the BASIC ended up being very good, it had the whole 256K or 512K of memory available for it to work with (the Next still doesn't do that), maths and graphics routines were redone to be faster (the Next leans on raising the CPU speed to 24Mhz), and the graphics origin and scaling worked as expected over different screen modes like the BBC's (the Next's changes depending on screen mode which is unnecessarily surprising to the programmer and means you can't change screen mode without re-writing the graphics).
I should have perhaps finished the 8-bit era with rose-tinted memories of the Spectrum +2 and +D before moving on to the Amiga instead of being drawn to the Coupé first by siren calls of compatibility and ST/Amiga-like games as hyped up in the mags, because it must have been about 50% compatible with Spectrum software if that and the games really just weren't comparable to the 16-bit machines.
Re: SAM Coupé compatibility, anybody?
I remember riding the bus to school and coveting the Sam Coupé when it was reviewed or advertised in the Spectrum magazines. Never got round to buying one; I was able to persuade my dad to get me an Amiga 500 soon after, which in hindsight was a much better result.
In some ways the timing was just right because no sooner do they get them built after the component shortage and shipped than the shipping's screwed up again.
There's a lot of things included, some of their own, some incorporated from other homebrew projects - improved BASIC, faster CPU an editor with syntax highlighting, improved CP/M over the +3's, Timex screen modes, full-colour screen mode, hardware scrolling and sprites, Megadrive joypads, a snapshot button, 2M memory, two DOSes (one based on the +3's and one based on exDOS), UNIX-like commands from exDOS, FAT-formatted SD cards, the keyboard and shell... and other stuff that I still need to find out about.
I can see why they want to get a critical mass of interest in the platform, be it Next, N-Go, or XBerry Pi, to keep the Spectrum going. I manage to find an hour here and an hour there to mess around with it but like most of us I don't have the time to sink into it now that I had 40 years ago. Even so it's more fun than an hour with Windows, Mac, or Linux so that has to be worth something.
As the first version had a blue box and the second had a has a box, the third version has to have a magenta box. Maybe it could have a built-in power switch too to incentivise repeat backings? :)
You have yours already? Grrr. And fortunately your spoiler about the box colour got mangled in editing… please don’t correct it, I don’t want to know anything about the Next or its packaging until I receive mine :)
Re the built in power switch, the KS2 Nexts at least have an inline switch on their power cord, right?
Re the built in power switch, the KS2 Nexts at least have an inline switch on their power cord, right?
Yes, they do.
SAM Coupé compatibility, anybody?
Wonderful to see this archetypal blast from the past walking and talking again. But there's still one thing missing.
Last in the line of the Speccy's many original incarnations was Miles Gordon Technology's SAM Coupé. More memory, more screen modes, sound chip, MIDI ports, dual expansion bays for floppy drives and similar, proper keyboard, extended procedural BASIC, can't remember it all. It included a licensed 48K Speccy ROM image for its compatibility mode. There were even subsequent upgrades released in small numbers, based on garage mods to unsold stock.
A lot of software was written for it or ported to it, and emulators are available. So it's a real shame that all these modern Speccy resurrectionists have gone selectively deaf. If you can achieve compatibility with all the varied Sinclair, Timex and Amstrad Speccys out there, you can - and should - do it for the Coupé too.