Timex Sinclair 2068 - Technical Specifications

Technical Specifications

The TS2068 was based on the ZX Spectrum and followed Timex's ZX81-based TS1000 and TS1500, and the Spectrum-based TC2048.

Like the TS2048 was announced as a 40K memory machine (16K RAM + 24K ROM), so the 2068 was announced as a 72K machine (48K RAM + 24K ROM).

The TS2068 was a more sophisticated device, significantly changed from its UK ancestor. Arguably one of the first Sinclair clones to significantly improve on the original design, it added a number of new features:

• an AY-3-8912 sound chip, as later used by Sinclair in the ZX Spectrum+ 128K (but mapped to different I/O ports and thus incompatible)
• twin joystick ports
• a slightly better "chiclet keyboard" with plastic keycaps
• a cartridge port to the right of the keyboard for ROM-based software
• an improved ULA offering additional screen modes:
  • The standard Sinclair 256×192 mode with a colour resolution of 32×24
  • An "extended colour mode", 256×192 pixels with colour resolution of 32×192
  • A monochrome 512×192 mode

Sinclair BASIC was extended with new keywords (STICK, SOUND, ON ERR, FREE, DELETE, RESET) to address the new hardware and the machine offered bank-switched memory, allowing ROM cartridges to be mapped in.

However, these changes made the machine incompatible with most Spectrum machine-code software, which is to say virtually all commercial titles; less than 10% would run successfully. In an attempt to remedy this, many TS users built a cartridge with a Spectrum ROM for emulation. The emulation was sufficiently accurate that it was able to run the majority of software produced for the Spectrum. Later, Timex of Portugal produced a Spectrum emulator cartridge that would auto-boot. This cartridge did not fit in a TS2068 as it was higher than TC2068 cartridges. The TC2068 casing was changed to accommodate this.

Although Timex Computer Corporation folded in February 1984, the independent Portuguese division continued to sell the machine in Portugal as the Timex Computer 2068, and Poland until 1989, as the Unipolbrit Komputer 2086. Although the Portuguese-made TC2068 was also sold in Poland, only the UK2086 was actually made there. Timex of Portugal sold 2 versions of TC2068: the Silver TC2068 version came with a ZX Spectrum emulator cartridge and a black TC2068 version sold with TimeWord word processing cartridge plus the Timex RS232 Interface to use TimeWord with a RS232 printer. Strangely the black version came with a silver keyboard template with TimeWord commands to be used with the program. It can be removed because it is not glued to the black keyboard template.

Although the TS2068's main improvements over the original Spectrum were in areas that had come in for widespread criticism (graphics, sound, keyboard, instant load software cartridges and—to a lesser extent—the lack of joystick ports), it was not used as the basis for the Spectrum's successors. The ZX Spectrum+ (1984) changed the keyboard only, and even the ZX Spectrum+ 128K (announced in May 1985, but not released in the UK until February 1986) retained the original machine's graphical capabilities. However, unlike the UK models, the TS2068 was not burdened by the requirement of compatibility with previous models.