ScuzzBlog: Diaries March 2021 Entry 07th March 2021: Post 1: Tatung Einstein - XtalDOS is CrystalDOS. Tatung Einstein - XtalDOS is CrystalDOS. I have great fondness for the Einstein and am fortunate to own two of the beasts. These are big and the box as you would expect is even bigger. And I mean bigger. I had cause to shift the shelf she is perched on so I thought I would check over the drive. These machines are fitted with the 3" disc drive which you would normally associate with Amstrad machines. I will fly anything with a 3" drive. I just love the format. I have never had any problems with the drives on either of my Einsteins. Today I did encounter a slight dodgy read on a disc. It did load past the problem but I thought I would format a disc and copy anyway. The system boots into MOS or XtalDOS which is pronounced Crystal. From here you can run BASIC and even CP/M. The discs are double sided and you can simply flip over and use the other side. You can also format the sides individually without interfering with the other side. To load BASIC you just type XBAS and like magic you are in the BASIC line coder and this works just like any other BASIC. You can also fire up Z80 DR LOGO which is great fun. To format the disk it really is very simple. There is a facility called BACKUP and you can from here backup and format. So having opened the program you simply select format and flip the disc over to the reverse side. Then format and then turn over and do the same with Backup, which copies the source to the target which in my case was the other side of the disk. The computer is incredibly easy to use and a joy to muck around on. The Einstein was very popular with programmers of the day who used it to write their programs before converting to the respective platform. Whilst it was used extensively by the programming world it was sadly not so popular in the home given the high price tag of around 500 quid. Designed and made in the UK and although not strictly an MSX machine was very similar in its design and operation. The company was actually based in Taiwan. The only real problems with the machine is the keyboard which has lost its bounce. The odd key can stick at times but the delete puts that right. On my other Einstein she takes a few minutes sometimes to warm up before she appears on the TV screen but after that she works just fine. I should mothball them both given the age now of 37 years, but in truth they work so well I don't think I can resist having a play. The Tatung Einstein TC-01 made in 1984 Telford Shropshire. Uses a Zilog Z80 A running at 4MHz and has 64MB RAM. Graphics give 256 x 192 dots and 16 colours. Sound has the 3 voices and 16 Octaves. If you do have one of these then keep an eye out for the wire to the rear. It will melt the polystyrene and if leaning against the case leave an imprint. I place tissue around mine. Scuse images. Tricky getting sharp images off the bw TV Tatung Einstein - XtalDOS is CrystalDOS.

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Last updated 7th March 2021

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