One Per Desk / Telecom ComputerPhone

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 8:58 pm

Hi,

just yesterday, I was at a friend's house and they mentioned they had an old computer in their garage which they had held for 15 years.

On pulling this machine out (which I had never heard of) it turned out to be an ICL OPD (One Per Desk), badged as a Telecom Computerphone.

I was of course amazed that a computer I had never heard of might be hidden in the garage of someone I knew, as that is a recurring dream for many on this forum. After convincing them I wasn't going to steal it, they let me borrow it to 'try it out'.

What is an OPD/Computerphone? It's a 1985-ish 8-bit bus computer, based around hardware found in a Sinclair QL (68009 processor, 128k memory, twin microdrives). It has a built-in phone, modem and integrated phone software, which is hugely novel. It also has integrated software on a 'motherboard'-style rompack - wp, database, spreadsheet and graphs. (Sound familiar?) I think it has a speech synthesizer too, but haven't worked out how to access it yet.

It's not the healthiest specimen, as it fails to boot up about 49 out of every 50 attempts. Once it's started though, it seems fine.

Most of the microdrive carts no longer read, however I was grateful that BASIC worked perfectly, and had a go at writing the usual 'Hello World' style programs. The keyboard is sturdy, yet the usual idiosyncracies of the 80s are there. Delete is frustratingly next to the 'A' key, and 'Enter' is the same size as any other key, albeit painted lurid green. There's a nifty triage of keys 'Start, Resume and Review' that let one skip between multiple opened applications, which is really cool. Not true multitasking, but 'interrupt'-style multitasking I guess.

The machine, despite having 7mhz or so, seems incredibly slow. GEOS-slow, and this may be due to the screen being bitmapped. I've never seen a QL so don't know if it is the same speed or not.

Overall, perhaps because of it's grey-scale display, it is not a very inspiring machine to use, but it is interesting nonetheless. It seems somewhere between the Plus/4 and Commodore 128D in terms of specs and target market, and probably suffers from everything those machines did - not compatible with anything, and not sufficiently more advanced than other 8-bit machines to justify upgrading to.

I'll try and take some pics that do it justice. Interesting there are no screws on the case, it has those horrible 'snaps' that you need to pry apart, and I am loathe to do that because it isn't my machine.

Does anyone know anything more about these machines? I love finding things I'd never heard of..

Cheers
-G

Richard James · Post by **Richard James** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 11:29 pm

I have used one of these computers. My father used to work with ICL. The microdrives were too fragile for my tastes. The only other thing I remember is that it was advertised under the banner of Quantum Leap itself. Unfortunately I don't remember much more since we probably binned that machine before 1995.

Zeela · Post by **Zeela** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 3:15 am

Wow! I've been wanting one of those for quite a while now

As you say, it's pretty much a Sinclair QL in another shell. The 68008 is a nice little processor.

The problem reading the MicroCarts usually lies in the microdrive not the carts. I have had four QLs and on all but one the microdrives were faulty. Senistive little buggers they are.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 8:58 am

Wasn't OPD a business computer? In that respect, I'd put it somewhere inbetween a C128 and a PC compatible, although I don't know which business related programs were available for the machine.

By the way, CPU wise it is a 16-bit computer but with 8 bit bus. Sinclair claimed the QL actually was a 32-bit computer which pretty much nobody believed anyway. The 68K series are a bit hard to categorize, depending on which parameter you measure.

d0c · Post by **d0c** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:10 am

pictures please.....

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:49 pm

Some pics.. apologies for wobbly screen shot in third pic.

http://www.adam.com.au/grichards/100_1077.JPG
http://www.adam.com.au/grichards/100_1079.JPG

And finally, the 'top menu' - the OS is menu-driven. The bottom two lines are permanent - date and time (not set), with phone status information.

http://www.adam.com.au/grichards/100_1081.JPG

The integrated phone software was supposedly very good for it's time, though I haven't bothered too much with it.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:55 pm

Woah! Could you possibly reduce the picture size? I'd need a dual monitor setup just to keep from scrolling the forum sideways to read this thread.

Thanks!

(from what I can tell, though, by seeing parts of the picture at a time, it looks very cool).

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:50 pm

It's a good idea to use Postimage when posting large pictures to forums. It's free and provides thumbnails so the formatting of the forum won't get screwed up. It's also makes things easier for those with slower connections.

Anyway, that thing reminds me of the Alex terminal:

Unfortunately the Alex isn't as powerful or interesting. Regardless, computers/terminals with phones attached are neat.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:56 am

those are so big ol' images. my favorite part is the small pin on the side.

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:29 am

Yes, big pics! I refuse to compromise my misunderstood art. OPDs, in your face, saying 'the future is here, can you deal with this?!'

OK. I'll go back and change them to links..

-G

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:39 am

gklinger wrote:... Anyway, that thing reminds me of the Alex terminal:

I just fell down my chair!!

I had so COMPLETELY forgotten about these!

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:40 am

I miss computers with coloured keys on their keyboard. That's one of the cool things about 1980s computers.

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:55 pm

eslapion wrote:I had so COMPLETELY forgotten about these!

Mine serves as a glorified doorbell.

Richard James · Post by **Richard James** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:46 am

Actually after looking at the pictures I realise this is not the machine I was using. The machine I used was an earlier system produced by ICL it was not made of LSI or VLSI chips like the VIC-20 but rather was made of a lot of 74 series type chips. It still had a microdrive or two in it.

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:21 pm

ral-clan wrote:I miss computers with coloured keys on their keyboard. That's one of the cool things about 1980s computers.

..yep, even the tan function keys on the Vic looked cool at the time.