Sinclair and Timex had no expectation that ZX81/TS1000 owners would use anything other than cassette storage with their computers. Their customers had different ideas.
Mass storage systems beyond cassette tape came in two varieties: Exatron “stringy floppy” and disk drives. User demand for mass storage systems was enough that several vendors produced and sold stringy floppy or disk systems for a number of years, first for the the ZX81/TS 1000 and later for the 2068.
ZX81/TS 1000 Options
ZX/TS users had several options:
- A & J Micro Drive stringy floppy system
- AERCO floppy disk system
- CAI stringy floppy system
- Compusa FDC-100 disk system
The Exatron-based used special endless-loop cassettes called “stringy floppies.” Exatron spun its storage systems to a separate company, A&J Micro Drive. The Rotronics Wafadrive was another Exatron-based system. The A&J system was available for both the ZX81/TS 1000 and the Rotronics for the TS 2068.
Disk drive systems generally supported 5 1/4″ or 3″ “Shugart SA400” disk drives. The Shugart SA400 defined the interfacing standard for 5 1/4″ floppy disk drives. Other disk drives, from the Hitachi 3″ to 8″ disk drives, used the same interface. This meant that a controller could interface to any one of those drives, a feature that some vendors noted in their advertisements.
At least two English floppy disk controllers, from Macronics and Analogue Interface Systems, were imported and sold to ZX81/TS 1000 in the US. American vendors also produced their own floppy disk controllers.
TS 2068 Options
With the ZX Spectrum and TS 2068, both Sinclair and Timex announced a storage system. Sinclair called it the Microdrive and it used an endless tape loop to store up to 85K of programs and data.
The TS 2068 shipped with support for Sinclair’s Microdrives, mostly in the form of incomplete commands. Timex announced their version of the Microdrive (the TS 2065). Unfortunately, it was cancelled before that came to fruition, but the keywords made adding a disk drive to the computer easier.
TS 2068 users had several systems to choose from; the most popular systems were from John L. Oliger and Larken Electronics. Zebra Systems imported the Timex Portugal produced FDD 3 and FDD-3000 systems.
Options for 2068 owners included:
- A & J micro drive stringy floppy system
- AERCO floppy disk system
- DAMCO stringy floppy system
- John L. Oliger floppy disk system
- LARKEN floppy disk system
- RAMEX stringy floppy system
- Zebra/Timex Portugal FDD3 and FDD3000
In their April 1989 issue, Update Magazine reported that 238 individuals, just under half their subscribers, had a TS 2068 disk system:
- 47% reported having a John L. Oliger disk system
- 47% Larken LKDOS
- 19% FD-68
- 8% TOS (Zebra)
- 4% Ramex
- 30% reported having dual DOS systems.
| Name | Description | Computers |
|---|---|---|
| 64K CP/M 2.2 Option | The CP/M option for the Zebra FDD 3 gives you access to the large library of CP/M-80 business and personal software. Includes terminal emulator program which allows the TS2068 to run CP/M in 64 column mode. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| A&J Micro Drive | Low cost, high-speed mass storage system that uses on “wafers” (endless loop tapes). Data transfer rate is many times faster than cassette and more reliable. Loads a 28k program in 24 seconds. Micro drive controller attaches to the expansion connector on the back and peripherals attach behind it. Most programs will run with little or | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| A&J Micro Drive Model 2000 | The TS2068 version of the A&J Micro Drive has all the features of the original and includes a Centronics printer interface. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| CAI/ESF Mass Storage Device | The CAI/ESF (Exatron Stringy Floppy) used endless-loop tapes and a small operating system to perform many of the functions available on disk operating systems. It could load or store 27K bytes in less than 30 seconds. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Disk Board A | Disk drive interface that used the WD1770 drive controller. Supported up to four disk drives. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Disk Board B with NMI Save | DOS board for the Oliger system, with NMI save feature. JLO SAFE (Simple and Fast Extended) Disk Basic is supplied on EPROM with this board. SAFE used the same syntax as cassette commands, but with a slash following the SAVE/LOAD command. Syntax for saving a BASIC program would be SAVE /”FILENAME” or SAVE /”FILENAME” LINE | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| ESF Drive 2 | Supplemental Exatron Stringy Floppy drive. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| F.I.Z. Floppy Disk Interface | Disk drive controller with routines on ROM plus 2K RAM buffer. True random access data files supported. Compusa marketed this interface in the United States. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| FD-68 Floppy Disk Interface | This floppy disk system for the TS2068 can control one to four 3″ to 8″ drives. Loads programs at 250k bit/sec. 64K of on-board RAM (mapped to the DOCK bank) can be used as system memory or to run CP/M. RGB output for monitor connection. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| FD-ZX Floppy Disk Interface | Supports 1-4 drives of any size, single/double density. Software driver in EPROM. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| FDC-100 Floppy Disk System | Floppy disk controller with disk operating system in EPROM. The controller plugs into the edge connector of the computer, drawing power from the computer and has cables for interface with two floppy disk units. The controller works with standard Shugart disk drives—single and double density, single and double sided. User interface with the control is | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| FDD 3 add-on disk drive | Add-on disk drive for the Zebra FDD 3 disk drive system. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| FDD 3 Disk Drive system | Four piece disk drive system designed for the TC 2068. Base system included disk controller, disk drive, system connector and twister board to convert the TS 2068 to the Spectrum bus. The system uses 3″ single-sided floppy disk drives. Each side holds 160K; the disk must be flipped to read/write the other side. The controller | Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| FDD 3000 Disk Drive system | Power supply, FDD controller and with two disk drives in a black metal case. Same intelligent controller as original FDD 3 but with expanded internal RAM of 64K. Each drive stores 160K per side. Zebra version included CP/M 2.2 and 64 column terminal emulator program for the TS 2068. A recreation of the CP/M is | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| FDD-3000 Spectrum Mode Option | Option for those who wish to run Spectrum software with the FDD 3000. Allows you to LOAD, SAVE and RUN Spectrum software from FDD 3000. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Floppy Disc Controller | For Shugart compatible drives. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Floppy Disk Interface | Actually the Macronics F.I.Z. DOS is in EPROM. Compatible with RAM packs. DOS commands include: INITIALIZE, DSAVE, DLOAD, NEWD, DIRECTORY, STAT, READ, WRITE, KILL, CREATE. Loads 8K program in 10 secs; saves 8K file in 20 secs, with verify. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Floppy Disk Interface | Controller for standard floppy disks. Stores 43K per disk. Manufactured by Indescomp. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Floppy Drive Interface | Timex/Sinclair 2068 | |
| Larken Disk System | Floppy disk interface, LKDOS cartridge, operating manual and LKDOS utilities disk. Can support up to four 3″ to 5.25″ single-sided, double-sided or quad density disk drives. NMI snapshot button and Kempston joystick port on the disk interface. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Larken ZX81 Disk System | Floppy disk interface for ZX81/TS1000. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| LKDOS/Extended BASIC Cartridge | Contains Larken DOS with 8K ROM and 8K RAM on the cartridge. Used to control Larken DSK-400 or other disk interfaces. All LKDOS or extended BASIC commands use the PRINT #4: syntax. Support for all Timex DOS commands. Extended basic commands include CIRCLE, windows, box clear and fill, channel support for devices, variations of POKE, | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Memotech Disk Drive | Vaporware announced in the Sync v3 n1 advertisement. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Microdrives | Vendor promised Timex microdrives before learning the 2068 was not compatible with the Spectrum. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Millenia K Disc Drive | Disk drive system for the TS 2068 with SP-DOS. Features: Stores 800k on one disk Loads 32K in one second Mini-DOS uses 4K RAM, full DOS uses 7.6K Supports Tasword, Tasmerge, Masterfile, Omnicalc II, Disc Pascal, C compiler | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Rotronics Wafadrive | Manufactured by BSR, the Wafadrive used an improved version of the Exatron stringy floppy drive. The Wafadrive included two continuous loop “stringy floppy” tape drives, an RS-232 interface and Centronics parallel port. Designed for the ZX Spectrum, this device requires twister board to work with the TS 2068. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| TS 2065 Microdrive | The TS2065 Microdrive was to be Timex’s variant of the Sinclair ZX Microdrive. The Microdrive read and wrote to special tape cartridges, each holding 20 feet of tape in a continuous loop and storing about 85K bytes of data. The tape runs at 30 inches per second, so the entire loop passes in 8 seconds. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |