Loki



nie veröffentlicht, 8MHz Z80H, 256KByte RAM, erweiterete Grafikmodi mit min. 256x192x16 Farben bis max. 512x256 in 256 Farben, 4-Kanal Digital-Sound, Expansionsport, RGB/Composite/TV, Seriellport, 2xJoystick, 1xLightpen, 3xMIDI, Kopfhöreranschluß, Videorecorder/Videodisc Interface, kompatibel zu 48K Spectrum (nicht zum 128K), teile des Designs werden schließlich im Atari Jaguar verwendet



By far the most interesting was the so-called "Super Spectrum", codenamed Loki. Depending on which account one believes, the name either derived from the Norse god (renowned for his love of games) or as a derivative of the acronym for Low-cost Colour Computer, aka LowCCC or LC3.

The Loki was intended to be an Amiga-beater, with custom graphics and sound chips, a "huge" 512x256 resolution in up to 256 colours and a 128K memory. The machine would also have a fully-buffered expansion bus, RGB, composite and TV display outputs, a serial port, two joystick ports, a light pen (supplied), three different types of MIDI port, stereo sound in and out, a headphone socket, and a video recorder/video disc interface. On top of all of that, floppy disk, hard disk, compact disk, mouse and modem connectivity would also be available. This remarkable package would cost as little as £200.

All of this was, of course, completely unrealistic and the specification amounted to little more than a wish-list. At the time, the Amiga, which was in some respects more limited than the Loki specification, cost £1,500. Much of that cost was due to its sophisticated custom-designed hardware. The Loki would have cost millions to develop over a period of several years (the Amiga took four years) and a £200 price point was far too low if the developer expected to make any money back.

In the event, the machine appears to have got no further than the design phase and was abandoned by Amstrad. Interestingly, however, its concepts did come to fruition in a very different form. After the Amstrad takeover, two ex-Sinclair engineers, John Mathieson and Martin Brennan, set up their own company called Flare, drawing on the Loki designs to produce a new multiprocessor games console. Atari were drawn into the project and, seeking to challenge the Sega Genesis/Megadrive and Super Nintendo, brought the machine to the market as the Atari Jaguar.

According to Jaguar developer Andrew Whittaker, "Some of that [Loki] technology also found a home in a machine called the SAM Coupé, which was manufactured and produced in the UK by MGT technologies (Bruce Gordon and Alan Miles, both ex-Sinclair staff also). It shared many interesting features with the Jaguar in terms of its video chip, but the machine sold very badly in Europe and the company folded."


from: http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/loki/loki.htm