Talk:Merlin M4000

I seem to remember these supported more than one (graphical) terminal, which could be monochrome (usually amber, which nicely matched the standard Logica VTS Brown/Tan colour scheme of the case) or colour. I suspect the Asteroids game was written as a demonstration of the GSX (Graphical System Extension) libraries for Concurrent CP/M-86. GSX eventually became the VDI (Virtual Device Interface) at the heart of GEM (Graphical Environment Manager). Unlike the Whirlwind (VTS-2200), the Kennet was capable of formatting its own floppy diskettes. I don't recall whether those were hard or soft-sectored. AndyBall (talk) 06:01, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

They were soft-sectored, standard IBM floppies. However the format was different and they were incompatible - I recall they might have been constant linear speed, rather than constant rotation, like the Sirius? Or else just a weird format. However, unlike the later Sirius, I don't think they were ever able to read IBM-formatted FAT floppies.

One of the best features, compared to the IBM, was the multi-tasking and the four virtual windows - great for the slow compiles of those days! Not just for multi-tasking, but (as BillG said in those days, for task-swapping. Just avoiding the need to load and unload the editor was a speed-up.

I don't recall multiple terminals or displays. Most of mine were running four serial ports out of the back with a high-speed 4-port serial board in each. I had racks of 20 of these, 80 ports in all, emulating 80 terminals as a test harness for testing mainframe apps at the DHSS. Andy Dingley (talk) 21:23, 16 January 2018 (UTC)