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/Vintage/Sinclair/80/Jupiter Ace/ |
| k1.spdns.de / Vintage / Sinclair / 80 / Jupiter Ace / |
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/Vintage/Sinclair/80/Jupiter Ace/ |
| k1.spdns.de / Vintage / Sinclair / 80 / Jupiter Ace / |
In 1983 Jupiter Cantab Ltd. sold the Jupiter Ace, a Z80 micro computer similar to the ZX81 in hardware, looking like a white colored mixture of ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, with black rubber keys and sporting the Forth programming language instead of Basic.
The founders of Jupiter Cantab Ltd. and designers of this computer, Richard Altwasser and Steven Vickers, came from Sinclair, where they played a major role in creating the ZX Spectrum.
The ACE came with 3 kB of RAM, thereof 1 kB character set, 1 kB frame buffer and 1 kB actually available for user programs, and was extensible up to 51 kB (thereof actually 49 kB usable for user programs), and had a user port and Specci-like beeper sound, while the ZX81 had none. The character bitmaps were loaded into RAM, where all 128 characters could be redefined for characterset-based highres graphics.
Internally the ACE was built with TTL standard chips like the ZX80, no custom ULA.
Some ZX81 peripherals, e.g. the ZX81 RAM extensions, could be attached to the Jupiter Ace with an adapter; e.g. Peripherals/Trumpcard (Innovonics)/, Peripherals/Motherboard (Boldfield)/
The Ace's built-in programming language, Forth, is much faster than Basic and valued higher by many programmers. But it is not procedural as most other high-level languages were, it is centered around a variables stack for passing values to and from 'words', the Forth counterpart of procedures.
Maybe because to the choice of Forth as built-in language, but also because of the start 2 years after the comparable ZX81 (1K RAM, b&w only), the Jupiter Ace was no success.
Jupiter Cantab Ltd. (Cantab stands for Cantabridgian: of Cambridge) was founded 1981 and went bankrupt only seven months after the Jupiter ACE's launch in November 1983.
There was also a version for the American market, called Jupiter ACE 4000, which launched later and stopped production with the UK version when Jupiter Cantab folded. This version is ultimately rare, much rarer even than the British version. The last Ace's built from the remaining component stock were housed in the 4000's case, but were internally the original UK version. These machines pop up sometimes at ebay. I have not yet seen a real Ace 4000 there.
based on: www.old-computers.com
Name Jupiter Ace
Manufacturer Jupiter Cantab Ltd., Cambridge, UK
Year April 1983 - November 1983
Built-in language Forth
Keyboard bare PCB contacts with rubber keys
CPU Zilog Z80A, 3.25 MHz
RAM 2+1 kB (extensible with up to 48 kB)
ROM 8 kB
Text modes 32 columns x 24 lines
Graphic modes 64 x 48 blockgraphics,
highres graphics with redefined characters
Colors Monochrome
Sound Beeper
Size, weight 21.8 x 19.2 x 3.2 (WxDxH) cm, 246 g
I/O ports Z80 bus, user port, TV out, tape (300 & 1k5 bps)
Price £89.95 (UK,1983), $149,95 (US,1983)
Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Cantab,
Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Ace
Major resource site: jupiter-ace.co.uk/
Jupiter Ace FAQ: http://users.aol.com/autismuk/ace/faq.htm.
This is dated 11/1997 but downloaded 11/2005 from Paul Robson's, the maintainer's site, so i believe that it's still up to date.
Emulator for X11, Win32: hem.passagen.se/tiletech/ace.htm
Emulator for DOS: http://users.aol.com/autismuk/ace/.
Version 1.4 archived as "ace32v14.zip" below.
Emulator for Mac OS X: k1.spdns.de/zxsp
Emulator for Windows: EightyOne. Recommended by Bodo Wenzel, see link below. EightyOne is the most accurate ZX81 emulator available for Windows (And probably any other system too). EightyOne emulates the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and Jupiter ACE systems (including clones like the TS1000/1500 & Lambda 8300) to various degrees of compatibility. It also supports emulation of the ZX Printer and various other devices. In "Accurate" mode, it almost correctly displays Low Resolution, Pseudo Hi-res and True Hi-Res (WRX, Memotech & G007) displays. Author: Michael D Wynne.
Paul Robson's software link list: users.aol.com/autismuk/ace/software.htm
| Name | Letzte Änderung | Länge | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Advertisements/ | 2019-08-20 05:24 | 4 | ||
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Build your own/ | 2020-08-27 14:08 | 11 | ||
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Circuit Diagrams/ | 2019-08-20 05:24 | 4 | ||
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Current Selling Prices/ | 2019-08-20 05:24 | 76 | ||
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Images/ | 2019-08-20 05:24 | 16 | ||
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Jupiter Ace Software/ | 2019-08-20 05:25 | 22 | ||
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Manual/ | 2019-08-20 05:24 | 8 | ||
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PCBs/ | 2020-08-27 14:08 | 7 | ||
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Peripherals/ | 2019-08-20 05:24 | 8 | ||
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ROMs/ | 2019-08-20 05:24 | 11 | ||
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ace32v14.zip | 2005-11-15 10:21 | 46239 | ||
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EightyOne v0.42.zip | 2005-09-09 21:59 | 798688 | ||
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EightyOneSource [GPL!].zip | 2006-02-02 11:19 | 329825 | ||
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Jupiter Ace FAQ 11'97 [Paul Robson].html | 2005-11-15 10:55 | 34482 | ||
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ZX Team Article [Bodo Wenzel, German].txt | 2005-11-01 20:32 | 15683 | ||
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EightyOne | 93 | |||
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jupiter-ace.co.uk | 96 |
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