Amstrad CPC Totally Explained

Everything about Amstrad Cpc totally explained

The Amstrad CPC was a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad Plc during the 1980s and early 1990s. CPC stood for 'Colour Personal Computer', although it was possible to purchase a CPC with a green screen (GT65/66) as well as with the standard colour screen (CTM640).
The first machine, the CPC 464, introduced in 1984, was designed as a direct competitor to the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum systems. Packaged as a "complete system" the CPC 464 came with its own monitor and built-in cassette tape deck. The CPC 664, with its own built-in floppy disk drive, arrived early in 1985, to be replaced itself later that same year by the CPC 6128. In 1990, Amstrad launched the CPC 464 and 6128 Plus range featuring tweaked hardware from the old CPC range.
The original CPC range was successful, especially in Europe, with over three million units sold. Following this success, Amstrad launched the Amstrad PCW word-processor range, which was a bigger success, with eight million units sold. Variations and clones of the CPC range were also released in Germany. However, the Plus range failed to find a market amongst the higher spec 16-bit computers of the competing Atari ST and Commodore Amiga systems.

Models

The CPC 464 was introduced in 1984 and was designed to be a direct competitor to the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum systems. Amstrad promoted the CPC as being a "complete system" - including everything required to use the machine in one box. This was similar to the 464, but with the addition of a built-in floppy disk drive instead of a tape deck. This new model not only contained the built-in floppy disk drive but had 128KB of memory.
   Outwardly, the most distinguishing features of Amstrad's offering were the matte black console case with sharp corners and narrowly rectangular form factor (the latter due to the built-in cassette tape deck (CPC 464) or floppy disk drive (CPC 664 and CPC 6128), the keyboard's distinctly coloured special keys (all the non-typewriter-standard keys on the 464 and 664), and the unique power supply hookup with one lead going from the monitor to the computer (or RF modulator) and, on disc-based machines, one lead going the other way. A television could be used with an optional adapter, and an optional tuner was available to turn the monitor into a TV.
   An external disk drive (DDI-1) was available for the 464, incorporating the DOS in an interface unit. A second drive (FD-1) could be added to both this and 664/6128 machines. Cassette recorders could also be connected to the 664 and 6128. By and large, the later versions were compatible with earlier machines, though there were incompatibilities in undocumented features. Third-party hardware add-ons such as Romantic Robot's popular Multiface allowed DIY backup of most tape software to disk.
   As a late entrant to the European 8-bit market, the CPC range never achieved the total sales volume of either the ZX Spectrum or the C64, but the advantages of a typewriter-style keyboard and integrated tape or floppy drive saw it obtain considerable market share in the late 80s. It became the best-selling computer in France at this time and was popular in Spain. Many of the best software titles for the CPC were created on the continent, but only a limited number saw commercial release in the UK.

Variations

Amstrad's German partner company Schneider produced its own models of the CPC 464, 664 and 6128. These machines had grey keys in place of the Amstrad coloured alternatives, and industry-standard D-connector Centronics ports in place of the edge connectors. They were otherwise identical at the hardware level, with a link on the PCB being set to configure the sign-on message as Schneider rather than Amstrad. Documentation and case labels were translated into German.
   Like most other computers of the era, the CPC inspired a clone in the Eastern bloc - the KC compact, made in East Germany using Soviet and East German components.
   The machine differed from a CPC visually with a different style of case, external power supply and (optional and even more scarce than the main device) external 5.25" Robotron disc drive. Unlike the Amstrad models it could be used with a television screen out of the box. It ran BASIC 1.1 and a CP/M clone, the German-language MicroDOS. It had 64 KB RAM built in and an additional 64 KB RAM was provided with the external disc/tape drive adapter.
   The Z80 processor was replaced with a U 880 (which is 100% bug-compatible), and some proprietary Amstrad I/O chips replaced with clones based on the Z8536. This clone machine was around 95% compatible with the original.

Plus models

In 1990 Amstrad introduced the "Plus" series, 464 and 6128 Plus, which tweaked the hardware and added a cartridge slot to the system. Improvements were made to the video display which saw an increase in palette to 4096 colours and gained a capacity for hardware sprites. The 8-bit technology behind the CPC was starting to look out-of-date by 1990 and Amstrad's marketing failed to promote any significant advantage over the competing Atari ST and Commodore Amiga systems.

CPC 664 – 3" Floppy disk drive, 64 KB RAM.

CPC 6128 – 3" Floppy disk drive, 128 KB RAM. CPC models were based on a Zilog Z80 processor clocked at . Because a common pool of RAM is shared with the video circuits, the Z80 may only make a memory accesses every four cycles - which has the effect of rounding instruction cycle lengths up to the next multiple of four. The speed is therefore roughly equivalent to a machine.
The system came with 64 KB or 128 KB of RAM depending on the model (capable of being expanded to 512k within the Amstrad-standard address space). The machines also featured an (almost) standard 9-pin Atari-style joystick socket which was able to take two joysticks via a splitter. as well as independent titles like Amstrad Action,

Influence on other Amstrad machines

Amstrad followed their success with the CPC 464 by launching the Amstrad PCW word-processor range, another Z80-based machine with a 3" disk drive and software by Locomotive Software. The PCW was originally developed to be compatible with an improved version of the CPC ('ANT', or Arnold Number Two - the CPC's development codename was Arnold). However, Amstrad decided to focus on the PCW, which in due course became vastly successful, and the ANT project never came to market.
On 7 April 1986 Amstrad announced it had bought from Sinclair Research "...the worldwide rights to sell and manufacture all existing and future Sinclair computers and computer products, together with the Sinclair brand name and those intellectual property rights where they relate to computers and computer related products." which included the ZX Spectrum, for £5 million. This included Sinclair's unsold stock of Sinclair QLs and Spectrums. Amstrad made more than £5 million on selling these surplus machines alone. Amstrad launched two new variants of the Spectrum: the ZX Spectrum +2, based on the ZX Spectrum 128, with a built-in tape drive (like the CPC 464) and, the following year, the ZX Spectrum +3, with a built-in floppy disk drive (similar to the CPC 664 and 6128), taking the 3" disks that Amstrad CPC machines used.

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