Minerva (QDOS reimplementation)
Encyclopedia
Written by Laurence Reeves in England
, Minerva was a reimplementation of Sinclair QDOS
, the built-in operating system
of the Sinclair QL
line of personal computers. Minerva incorporated many bug fixes and enhancements to both QDOS and the SuperBASIC
programming language
. Later versions also provided the ability to multi-task
several instances of the SuperBASIC interpreter, something not supported by QDOS.
Minerva was distributed as a ROM
chip on a daughterboard
which replaced the QL's original ROM chips. A Minerva Mk. II daughterboard was also produced which also incorporated an I²C
interface and non-volatile real-time clock. As of version 1.89, the Minerva source code
is licenced under the GNU General Public License
.
Other reimplementations of QDOS include SMS2
and SMSQ/E
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Minerva was a reimplementation of Sinclair QDOS
Sinclair QDOS
QDOS is the multitasking operating system found on the Sinclair QL personal computer and its clones...
, the built-in operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
of the Sinclair QL
Sinclair QL
The Sinclair QL , was a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as the successor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum...
line of personal computers. Minerva incorporated many bug fixes and enhancements to both QDOS and the SuperBASIC
SuperBASIC
SuperBASIC was an advanced variant of the BASIC programming language with many structured programming additions. It was developed at Sinclair Research by Jan Jones during the early 1980s. Originally SuperBASIC was intended for a home computer, code-named SuperSpectrum, then under development...
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
. Later versions also provided the ability to multi-task
Computer multitasking
In computing, multitasking is a method where multiple tasks, also known as processes, share common processing resources such as a CPU. In the case of a computer with a single CPU, only one task is said to be running at any point in time, meaning that the CPU is actively executing instructions for...
several instances of the SuperBASIC interpreter, something not supported by QDOS.
Minerva was distributed as a ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
chip on a daughterboard
Daughterboard
A daughterboard, daughtercard or piggyback board is a circuit board meant to be an extension or "daughter" of a motherboard , or occasionally of another card...
which replaced the QL's original ROM chips. A Minerva Mk. II daughterboard was also produced which also incorporated an I²C
I²C
I²C is a multi-master serial single-ended computer bus invented by Philips that is used to attach low-speed peripherals to a motherboard, embedded system, cellphone, or other electronic device. Since the mid 1990s, several competitors I²C ("i-squared cee" or "i-two cee"; Inter-Integrated Circuit;...
interface and non-volatile real-time clock. As of version 1.89, the Minerva source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
is licenced under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
Other reimplementations of QDOS include SMS2
SMS2
SMS2 was a computer operating system developed for the Atari ST by Tony Tebby, the designer of the Qdos operating system for the Sinclair QL personal computer...
and SMSQ/E
SMSQ/E
SMSQ/E is a computer operating system originally developed in France by Tony Tebby, the designer of the original QDOS operating system for the Sinclair QL personal computer. It began life as SMSQ, a QDOS-compatible version of SMS2 intended for the Miracle Systems QXL emulator card for PCs. This was...
.