website/content/museum/icl-quattro.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
ICL Quattro	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1985	8086-2	name image company company_name specs tabs photos comments oc_id source Quattro /media/museum/photos/icl_quattro_system_1.jpg /companies/icl ICL label value NAME Quattro label value MANUFACTURER ICL label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1985 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full stroke 102 key with function and arrow keys and numeric keypad label value CPU 8086-2 label value SPEED 8 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Socket for 8087 math coprocessor label value RAM From 128 KB to 1 MB label value ROM 40 KB label value TEXT MODES 80 chars x 25 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES 640 x 400 dots (ICL terminals) label value COLORS Monochrome or 8 colours label value SOUND Beeper label value SIZE / WEIGHT Unknown label value I/O PORTS 6 x serial RS232 ports, custom serial port, RS422 port, RGB port label value BUILT IN MEDIA 1 or 2 x 5.25'' 800 KB floppy drives, 10 or 20 MB hard disk label value OS Concurrent CP/M V.3.1 label value POWER SUPPLY Built in switching power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS RAM expansion, 2nd 20 MB hard disk, ICL monitors and printers label value PRICE Model 19: £2195 - Model 39: £4395 - Model 49: £4995\ Monochrome terminal: £899 - Colour: £1399 photos title subtitle text image INSIDE **(1)** 2 cards was used for hard disk control. In fact, it was original old 'Black Box' cards\ **(2)** CPU and ROM card\ **(3)** 3 x 256 KB RAM cards\ **(4)** Serial and I/O card\ **(5)** 6 x serial RS232 ports\ **(6)** Custom serial port\ **(7)** RGB port. Was not used for a colour monitor, but for the connection of a video system to create slides, or a projector to show them\ **(8)** Custom synchronous port. Gives the link to ICL or IBM mainframes\ **(9)** Switching power supply unit\ **(10)** 800 KB 5.25" floppy drive\ **(11)** Rodime 20 MB hard disk drive /media/museum/photos/icl_quattro_inside_1.jpg title subtitle text image ICL TERMINAL KEYBOARD /media/museum/photos/icl_quattro_keyboard_1.jpg author date text Andy C Friday 21st March 2014 George, the Disc A Hung wasn''t a hardware fault - it was a race condition in the hard disc controller code. I''ll never forget that bug, it took me 18 months on-and-off to fix the b****y thing. No matter how hard we worked the system it wouldn''t fail. It turned out you had to work the CPU hard, and the disc hardly at all to make it happen.\ And the fix was to swap to adjacent sections of code, one 3 lines and one four. author date text Chris Quinn (Liverpool, UK) Friday 4th January 2013 I worked for the IT department of the UK Home Office. We had quite a few systems running on these machines. The ones I was involved with were for the centres that maintained and repaired radio equipment for the Police and Fire Brigades.\ I wrote a system using the Dataflex 4GL system to track repairs through the workshops - up to 4 terminals, some in the stores, others in the workshops.\ I do remember having to write a small assembler program to allow the users to enter the system date in UK format on startup (the clock was not battery backed), as these were really rebadged Rair machines, which expected data entry in US format. author date text George Morrison (UK) Friday 11th June 2010 I worked for a computer dealer which sold these to run our proprietary accounting software. There was a problem whereby, seemingly at random, the machine would freeze with a "Disk A hung" message (Disk A being the hard disk). ICL eventually acknowledged this as a hardware problem although, by then, our small number of ICL customers had been moved to other systems due to their unreliability. Our software was written in MS Basic and I spend two weeks converting it it to CBasic - only for an MS-DOS emulator to appear which ran the MS-DOS versions of our programs substantially faster than the native CBasic ones. The OS, Concurrent CP/M, didn''t have tree-structured directories, it had numbered areas on the disk, 0 - 15. author date text Kevin Townsend (UK) Monday 29th March 2010 In 1986 I was employed by ICL''s agency to produce a series of booklets to demonstrate the multi-user, multi-tasking capabilities of the Quattro. These were deliverd to the ICL stand at a major computer show at the NEC. Graphics from these booklets can be seen at http://kevtownsend.wordpress.com/editorial-services/sample-design-work-circa-1986/. You might say that a subsequent software suite logo is remarkably - possibly too remarkably - similar to the Quattro design: I couldn''t possibly comment. author date text Andy mackay Wednesday 30th April 2008 I remember, around 1992-3, our firm filling a skip full of these and ICL's modular server styley thing, which ran PC-DOS. Anyway I fished a few out of the skip and went to 'The Computer Junk Shop' up in Widness to see if I could get a few bob for them. Now if anyone has ever been to this shop you will know they seem to never be open and when they are they seem to specialise in selling really obsolete worn out stuff. So to cut a long story short I went there on a Friday, cuz that was the day that the chap who bought stuff was there. I got there and this guy wasn't around, and I couldn't convince the guy who was as to what a bargain they were, well I waited about 20 mins for the buyer to arrive, but got fed up and left. As I got outside, some other chap (he was just a customer) accosted me saying that he had over heard my conversation with the shop assistant and had been trying to get my attention for ages. He asked me how many I had which was 2 and gave me £20 each for them, all in all a nice little earner I which I fished out more especially when you see how much they were new. My company @ the time was a big ICL client and used all ICL hardware IE Mainframe, UNIX stuff, and these modular server things out in the branches, which ran the work stations and sent the ordres up to the Mainframe, and had a limited order capturing capabilties when the Mainframe was down, I think they were called DRS10, DRS20 Etc depending on what modules they had. 852 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20221209194127/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=852 2022-12-09

With the Quattro, ICL attempted to tackle the multi-user market which was still opened with neither definitive system nor operating system.

The Quattro was a development of earlier ICL Personal Computer which in turn was a development of the Rair Black Box

The machine was named Quattro as it supported up to four users, each user running up to four programs simultaneously.

Internal hardware design was quite similar as the Personal Computer's. An eight connector backplane supporting logic boards. However, the CPU board featured a 16 bit 8086-2 and up to 1 MB of RAM could be installed.

Thre models were available:
Model 19 with 256 KB RAM and 2 x 5" 800 KB floppy drive,
Model 39 with 512 KB of RAM, one floppy drive and one 10 MB hard disk,
Model 49 same as Model 39 but with a 20 MB hard disk.

The Quattro could work with wirtually any video terminal. ICL supplied its own monochrome (6402G) and colour (6404G) graphic versions along with a 102 key keyboard.

It was delivered with Concurrent CP/M Operating System, later called Concurrent DOS, a true multi-tasking, multi-user O.S. which offered a very limited compatibility with MS-DOS.
Sadly, few major software of the time, running on the first IBM PC and clones, were adapted to the specific features of the ICL. This is the main reason why the Quattro didn't meet any success, except near some corporate customers who already used ICL mainframes.

We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.