Difference between revisions of "Project Beta"

From The Dragon Archive
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[[File:DragonBeta-2.jpg|right|thumb]]
 
[[File:DragonBeta-2.jpg|right|thumb]]
 
Project Beta (AKA Dragon 128) was something altogether different, and saw GEC Dragon really wanting to hit the big time. Expecting to retail at £2500-3000, the micro housed twin 68B09 processors, had 256K RAM (expandable to 768K) and offered two internal 3.5" floppy drives with an external hard disc available as an add-on. Together with an on-board power supply the machine also incorporated an 80-column display and an RGB monitor connection
 
Project Beta (AKA Dragon 128) was something altogether different, and saw GEC Dragon really wanting to hit the big time. Expecting to retail at £2500-3000, the micro housed twin 68B09 processors, had 256K RAM (expandable to 768K) and offered two internal 3.5" floppy drives with an external hard disc available as an add-on. Together with an on-board power supply the machine also incorporated an 80-column display and an RGB monitor connection
[[File:DragonBetaTop.jpg|right|thumb]]
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[[File:DragonBetaTop.jpg|right|thumb|Dragon Beta Motherboard]]
 
The main CPU unit had a flat-top to support a monitor and the detached keyboard also featured a separate numeric pad. Together with  parallel Centronics, RS232, light-pen and a mouse port; a mother-card was supplied providing expansion boards to be fitted. At the time of announcement only three had been fully developed.
 
The main CPU unit had a flat-top to support a monitor and the detached keyboard also featured a separate numeric pad. Together with  parallel Centronics, RS232, light-pen and a mouse port; a mother-card was supplied providing expansion boards to be fitted. At the time of announcement only three had been fully developed.
[[File:DragonBeta-D32.jpg|right|thumb]]
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[[File:DragonBeta-D32.jpg|right|thumb|Dragon Beta next to Dragon 32]]
  
 
It is not known how many of these prototypes were built, only one fully assembled Beta is known to exist and one working motherboard.
 
It is not known how many of these prototypes were built, only one fully assembled Beta is known to exist and one working motherboard.

Revision as of 12:01, 10 February 2010

DragonBeta-1.jpg
DragonBeta-2.jpg

Project Beta (AKA Dragon 128) was something altogether different, and saw GEC Dragon really wanting to hit the big time. Expecting to retail at £2500-3000, the micro housed twin 68B09 processors, had 256K RAM (expandable to 768K) and offered two internal 3.5" floppy drives with an external hard disc available as an add-on. Together with an on-board power supply the machine also incorporated an 80-column display and an RGB monitor connection

Dragon Beta Motherboard

The main CPU unit had a flat-top to support a monitor and the detached keyboard also featured a separate numeric pad. Together with parallel Centronics, RS232, light-pen and a mouse port; a mother-card was supplied providing expansion boards to be fitted. At the time of announcement only three had been fully developed.

Dragon Beta next to Dragon 32

It is not known how many of these prototypes were built, only one fully assembled Beta is known to exist and one working motherboard.