472 - Revision history

Borja at 09:49, 29 April 2022

2022-04-29T09:49:42Z

Borja at 09:48, 29 April 2022

2022-04-29T09:48:14Z

Bryce at 11:16, 6 September 2013

2013-09-06T11:16:48Z

Tahrey: /* Description */

2013-02-05T12:33:19Z

‎Description

Tahrey: /* Description */

2013-02-05T12:33:06Z

‎Description

Tahrey: /* Description */ I'm sorry, I can't find how to insert a wikipedia-style reference citation here, so these will have to do :(

2013-02-05T12:32:45Z

‎Description: I'm sorry, I can't find how to insert a wikipedia-style reference citation here, so these will have to do :(

Gryzor: Formatting, no credits in-text please...

2012-11-20T14:18:01Z

Formatting, no credits in-text please...

Pgquiles: Amstrad knew about the 64 + 8 = 72k trick

2012-11-19T10:50:50Z

Amstrad knew about the 64 + 8 = 72k trick

MacDeath at 16:51, 19 December 2010

2010-12-19T16:51:20Z

Morn: /* 64K RAM Limit */ spelling

2010-06-29T15:32:11Z

‎64K RAM Limit: spelling

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 The tax is said to have been at least 15,000 pesetas per computer. For reference:
 * 15,000 pesetas are approximately 90 euros. (As per [http://www.unitconversion.org/eu-currency/spanish-pesetas-to-euros-conversion.html THIS] converter)
-* The CPC472 itself was sold for 66,900 pesetas ('''how many?''' euros)
+* The CPC472 itself was sold for 66,900 pesetas (400 euros)
 (For reference, prior to the introduction of this law, a CPC464 system ''including green screen monitor'' was sold for only 25,000 to 30,000 pesetas / 150 to 180 euros (as per [http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=18955#p19008 THIS] admittedly anecdotal forum post...))

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 The tax is said to have been at least 15,000 pesetas per computer. For reference:
 * 15,000 pesetas are approximately 90 euros. (As per [http://www.unitconversion.org/eu-currency/spanish-pesetas-to-euros-conversion.html THIS] converter)
-* The CPC472 itself was sold for '''how many?''' pesetas ('''how many?''' euros)
+* The CPC472 itself was sold for 66,900 pesetas ('''how many?''' euros)
 (For reference, prior to the introduction of this law, a CPC464 system ''including green screen monitor'' was sold for only 25,000 to 30,000 pesetas / 150 to 180 euros (as per [http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=18955#p19008 THIS] admittedly anecdotal forum post...))

@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 === 64K RAM Limit ===
-. Some Spanish companies may have lobbied for a tariff on imported computers, calculators and other electronic machines during the first half of the eighties (*). As a result, the Spanish Government passed an Act (Real Decreto 1215/1985, dated on 17th of July, 1985) that established a tariff on headings 84.52 (calculator and accounting machines, cash registers, etc.) and 84.53 ("automatic machines for data processing", including computers) imported from foreing countries.
+. Some Spanish companies may have lobbied for a tariff on imported computers, calculators and other electronic machines during the first half of the eighties (*). As a result, the Spanish Government passed an Act (Real Decreto 1215/1985, dated on 17th of July, 1985) that established a tariff on headings 84.52 (calculator and accounting machines, cash registers, etc.) and 84.53 ("automatic machines for data processing", including computers) imported from foreign countries.
 . Foreign computer manufacturers lobbied themselves as a response, and forced the Government to move to an equidistant position: the tariff would be charged only on "micro-computers", that is, "automatic machines for data processing with less than 64 KB of memory". The lobbying movement was so effective that the Spanish Ministro de Economía (equivalent to the head of the British Departments of Commerce and Treasury), Carlos Solchaga, gave up his summer vacation and travelled to Mallorca, were the king was having his holidays, to have the new law signed (Real Decreto 1558/1985, dated on 28th of August, 1985). The urgency of the trip gives an idea of how powerful were foreign computer manufacturers at that time.
@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 . Amstrad España ([[Indescomp]]) wasn't fully satisfied by the tariff discount, and started selling their allegedly 72 KB model (Amstrad CPC 472) on September 1985 to avoid the tariff. My guess is that Amstrad UK was aware of this movement (maybe not his engineers, but at least the sales department), since the computers should arrive at Spain with the legend "72 KB RAM computer" labeled anyplace.
-According to Sugar's autobiography "What you see is what you get", Amstrad knew very well what was going on. Beginning of Chapper 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''.
+According to Sugar's autobiography "What you see is what you get", 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''.
 . 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.

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 * The CPC472 itself was sold for '''how many?''' pesetas ('''how many?''' euros)
-(For reference, prior to the introduction of this law, a CPC464 system ''including green screen monitor'' was sold for only 25,000 to 30,000 pesetas / 150 to 180 euros (as per [http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=18955#p19008 THIS] admittedly anecdotal forum post...)
+(For reference, prior to the introduction of this law, a CPC464 system ''including green screen monitor'' was sold for only 25,000 to 30,000 pesetas / 150 to 180 euros (as per [http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=18955#p19008 THIS] admittedly anecdotal forum post...))
 Because there was no space for a new chip, Amstrad designers took off the ROM chips, and put it in a daughter board, along with the extra 4164 RAM chip. Wires connected pins at the ROM from the daughter board to the corresponding pins on the main board. The wires were hard enough to make difficult to turn the daughter board over and reveal the trick: no wires were connected from the DRAM chip to the main board. Even the supply pins were not connected!!

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 The tax is said to have been at least 15,000 pesetas per computer. For reference:
 * 15,000 pesetas are approximately 90 euros. (As per [http://www.unitconversion.org/eu-currency/spanish-pesetas-to-euros-conversion.html THIS] converter)
-* The CPC472 itself was sold for '''how many?''' pesetas ('''how many?''' euros)(For reference, prior to the introduction of this law, a CPC464 system ''including green screen monitor'' was sold for only 25,000 to 30,000 pesetas / 150 to 180 euros (as per [http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=18955#p19008 THIS] admittedly anecdotal forum post...)
+* The CPC472 itself was sold for '''how many?''' pesetas ('''how many?''' euros)
 Because there was no space for a new chip, Amstrad designers took off the ROM chips, and put it in a daughter board, along with the extra 4164 RAM chip. Wires connected pins at the ROM from the daughter board to the corresponding pins on the main board. The wires were hard enough to make difficult to turn the daughter board over and reveal the trick: no wires were connected from the DRAM chip to the main board. Even the supply pins were not connected!!

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:50, 19 November 2012
Line 60:		Line 60:

	4. Amstrad España ([[Indescomp]]) wasn't fully satisfied by the tariff discount, and started selling their allegedly 72 KB model (Amstrad CPC 472) on September 1985 to avoid the tariff. My guess is that Amstrad UK was aware of this movement (maybe not his engineers, but at least the sales department), since the computers should arrive at Spain with the legend "72 KB RAM computer" labeled anyplace.		4. Amstrad España ([[Indescomp]]) wasn't fully satisfied by the tariff discount, and started selling their allegedly 72 KB model (Amstrad CPC 472) on September 1985 to avoid the tariff. My guess is that Amstrad UK was aware of this movement (maybe not his engineers, but at least the sales department), since the computers should arrive at Spain with the legend "72 KB RAM computer" labeled anyplace.
		+	: According to Sugar's autobiography "What you see is what you get", Amstrad knew very well what was going on. Beginning of Chapper 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''. [[User:Pgquiles\|Pgquiles]] 12:50, 19 November 2012 (EET)

	5. 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.		5. 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.

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:51, 19 December 2010
Line 93:		Line 93:
	</gallery>		</gallery>

−	[[Category:Hardware]][[Category:CPC History]][[Category:CPC Internal Components]]	+	[[Category:Hardware]][[Category:CPC History]][[Category:CPC Internal Components]][[Category:Amstrad Products]]

@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 === 64K RAM Limit ===
-. Some Spanish companies may have lobbyed for a tariff on imported computers, calculators and other electronic machines during the first half of the eighties (*). As a result, the Spanish Government passed an Act (Real Decreto 1215/1985, dated on 17th of July, 1985) that established a tariff on headings 84.52 (calculator and accounting machines, cash registers, etc.) and 84.53 ("automatic machines for data processing", including computers) imported from foreing countries.
+. Some Spanish companies may have lobbied for a tariff on imported computers, calculators and other electronic machines during the first half of the eighties (*). As a result, the Spanish Government passed an Act (Real Decreto 1215/1985, dated on 17th of July, 1985) that established a tariff on headings 84.52 (calculator and accounting machines, cash registers, etc.) and 84.53 ("automatic machines for data processing", including computers) imported from foreing countries.
-. Foreing computer manufacturers lobbyed themselves as a response, and forced the Government to move to an equidistant position: the tariff would be charged only on "micro-computers", that is, "automatic machines for data processing with less than 64 KB of memory". The lobbying movement was so effective that the Spanish Ministro de Economía (equivalent to the head of the British Departments of Commerce and Treasury), Carlos Solchaga, gave up his summer vacation and travelled to Mallorca, were the king was having his holidays, to have the new law signed (Real Decreto 1558/1985, dated on 28th of August, 1985). The urgency of the trip gives an idea of how powerful were foreign computer manufacturers at that time.
+. Foreign computer manufacturers lobbied themselves as a response, and forced the Government to move to an equidistant position: the tariff would be charged only on "micro-computers", that is, "automatic machines for data processing with less than 64 KB of memory". The lobbying movement was so effective that the Spanish Ministro de Economía (equivalent to the head of the British Departments of Commerce and Treasury), Carlos Solchaga, gave up his summer vacation and travelled to Mallorca, were the king was having his holidays, to have the new law signed (Real Decreto 1558/1985, dated on 28th of August, 1985). The urgency of the trip gives an idea of how powerful were foreign computer manufacturers at that time.
 . The tariff charged on imported computers lasted one month only, from the 25th of July to the 3rd of September, 1985. The amount of the tariff per unit ranged from 15,000 to 300,000 pesetas (90 to 1,800 euro at current prices), depending on the type and the value of each particular model. From the 3rd of September, 1985, only computers with less than 64 KB of RAM were charged with the 15,000ptas./90€ tariff, leaving tax-exempt the rest.
-. Amstrad España ([[Indescomp]]) wasn't fully satisfied by the tariff discount, and started selling their allegedly 72 KB model (Amstrad CPC 472) on September 1985 to avoid the tariff. My guess is that Amstrad UK was aware of this movement (maybe not his engineers, but at least the sales department), since the computers should arrive at Spain with the legend "72 KB RAM computer" labelled anyplace.
+. Amstrad España ([[Indescomp]]) wasn't fully satisfied by the tariff discount, and started selling their allegedly 72 KB model (Amstrad CPC 472) on September 1985 to avoid the tariff. My guess is that Amstrad UK was aware of this movement (maybe not his engineers, but at least the sales department), since the computers should arrive at Spain with the legend "72 KB RAM computer" labeled anyplace.
-. 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 Comission Decision 1985/80908, dated on 15th of November, 1985). There was no point in marketing the CPC 472 model from then on.
+. 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.
 * (*) One of them may have been Eurohard, the Spanish company that bought the rights on the Dragon range of computers to Dragon Data at the end of 1984. Eurohard was manufacturing and selling 32 KB and 64 KB computers at that time -the Dragon 32, Dragon 64 & Dragon 200 models-, and developing a MSX-1 compatible computer with no more than 64 KB of RAM.