The dodgiest computer ever !

[Bud]

In 1985 Amstrad released a model CPC472 personal computer that was dodgy in the design to the point of being consumer fraud.  A fascinating story is here from 3:30 to 11:30 why that happened.

https://youtu.be/_ErfWfjN9iU

[SiliconWizard]

Article: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/472

Amstrad knew very well what was going on. Beginning of Chapter 9: In August 1985, I had a panicked telephone call from Dominguez telling me there was a serious problem, that all computers of 64k and below were now banned from importation into Spain. This was because a Spanish manufacturer was producing a 64k computer and had managed to get the Spanish government to impose a rule blocking all others. This was a disaster for Dominguez and Amstrad – by now we were selling thousands of computers in Spain. [...] Fortunately, the main operating system ROM chip was fitted on the PCB by means of an IC socket; it wasn’t soldered in permanently. I suggested to my people in Brentwood that we design a mini-PCB which would hold the ROM chip as well as an extra single 64k D-RAM chip (and a few peripheral components). I also asked my technical geniuses to come up with some justification as to what this extra chip was doing, rather than be sitting in mid-air going nowhere. They did – but don’t ask me what it was! This mini-PCB, with its additional D-RAM, then plugged into the original IC socket. Based on this trick, it was true to say that the computer now had 72k of memory. We rushed the design of this mini-PCB to Orion. On top of this, we had to change the faceplate on the front of the computer which was labelled ‘64k, as well as all the packaging and the instruction manual.

Fun. Note that this import tax itself was kind of dodgy.
And then:

Spain joined the EEC on 1st of January, 1986. The Government had to align his tariffs policy with that of the EEC, and as a result it has to remove the charges on the heading 84.53 (EEC Commission Decision 1985/80908, dated on 15th of November, 1985). There was no point in marketing the CPC 472 model from then on.

Whether it was a fraud from a consumer's pov is debatable. At the time, a "XXX K" mention on a home computer was not necessarily just about the amount of RAM. It was not uncommon for manufacturers to  make up some marketing figures including ROM, or video RAM, or whatever. The computer itself would probably never have been available to spanish consumers had they not played that trick, so I don't think they really lost much there.

Playing with taxes and regulations in similar ways is still done nowadays.

[Syntax Error]

Wow. Back in day, when Lord Sugar was just Sugar, I had a tech support role in London supporting an office block full of these CPCs. Which tech support knew stood for Complete Piece of Crap.
 
A bit harsh, but the world then was already moving beyond IBM XTs and Windows 3.1, but as a publishing company most if their content was on 'Amstrad discs'. Anyway, most of the hacks (press) had grown up on mechanical type writers, so this was cutting edge DTP. Some of the yuppies had PCW machines, which looked really cool, unless you'd seen a Macintosh.

Luckily the company saw the light and bought in Viglen Computers with fancy Windows 98. Viglen was a company Sir Alan purchased. Some company employees took their redundant CPCs home for £5. The rest were dumped. Sorry, sent to "help Africa". I understand these CPCs are collectors items, go figure?

Somewhere in Silicon Hell there is a special partition reserved for all Amstrad computers

[llopis]

Glad you liked the video. It really is an amazing story. Some engineer for sure put their job in the line for that.

If you like weird stories behind the origin of some computers, check out this other video I released more recently on the story behind the Inves Spectrum+ (that's right, no Sinclair and no ZX there):

The actual origin story starts out at 5:12.

[Wilksey]

I had a CPC 464 and I loved that thing, mind you I didn't know any better and my 386 kept complaining about memory and couldn't run games (until I learned about how to use config.sys and autoexec.bat).

[Bud]

If you like weird stories behind the origin of some computers, check out this other video I released more recently on the story behind the Inves Spectrum+

In regards to the green tint problem you may need to check the subcarrier oscillator frequency on the mc1377 chip.  Also the Motorola device datasheet explains how to adjust the subcarrier quadrature and residual colors.

[llopis]

If you like weird stories behind the origin of some computers, check out this other video I released more recently on the story behind the Inves Spectrum+

In regards to the green tint problem you may need to check the subcarrier oscillator frequency on the mc1377 chip.  Also the Motorola device datasheet explains how to adjust the subcarrier quadrature and residual colors.

Yes, I looked all over! The MC1377P datasheet is awesome by the one. One of the best ones I've ever seen. New video with that investigation coming up later today :-)

[Bud]

Ok, please start a new topic then, as this one was about a different computer.

[llopis]

I just created another topic on this same forum if you want to check it out.

[ebastler]

I had a tech support role in London supporting an office block full of these CPCs. Which tech support knew stood for Complete Piece of Crap.
[...]
Luckily the company saw the light and bought in Viglen Computers with fancy Windows 98.

You mean they used Amstrad CPCs until 1998?! Say what you like, but unless you got your dates or computer models wrong, they sure got a lot of mileage out of those CPCs... 

[vwestlife]

Not as dodgy as the 486 motherboards with fake cache. That was just pure fraud. This is a bad photo, but the two "Write Back Cache" chips are just hollow plastic shells, and the circuit traces they're soldered to just go in circles between the two chips, and are not connected to anything else on the motherboard.

[Bud]

 What was the reason to make those ones?

[Rasz]

Not as dodgy as the 486 motherboards with fake cache

I didnt know PCChips even used green laminate, only seen piss yellow personally (and I did work for official Euro PCchips distributor in nineties :/)
good old PCChips M919

[Syntax Error]

You mean they used Amstrad CPCs until 1998?! Say what you like, but unless you got your dates or computer models wrong, they sure got a lot of mileage out of those CPCs... 

A LOT of mileage! There was a reticence by senior staffers to embrace the 'new' desktop computer phenomina; as well as budgetary constraints. There was also the minor issue of user content being stuck on C90 tapes. I remember using Kermit over RS232 with an IBM PC to copy content onto those new fangled floppy discs! The company did have a Prime miniframe and a hoard of always failing DecMate word processors, but the diehards loved their multicoloured keyboard. Which kind of complimented the chaos of their journalistic desks. Finally, along came Mister Viglen, which was just in time for the Millenium Bug. Pioneering days.