History
When the Z88 came out there was no internet or standard for communicating between different computers. The key strength of the Z88 has been its ability to share its data with a range of computers. Cambridge Computer released PC Link, PC Link II, BBC Link, and Mac Link.
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Third party software were provided for the PCW, Amiga, Archimedes, Atari ST & QL Link.
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For more info on Sector Software click here |
Computers and methods of communicating have changed since then, the Serial Port has given way to USB and even Bluetooth. The Z88 keeps up to date with thanks to its band of technical users
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Ranger came up with a different approach. Rather than controlling the software from the PC, they used the Z88 itself. They had already written software using a subset of the Christie tape protocol to run on the Z88 using the serial port for their Ranger Disk Drive. A few tweaks were needed on the Z88 and a small DOS program developed for the PC to use either COM.1 or 2 that looked like the drive from the Z88 and they were off. Their program on the Z88 ran outside of OZ controlling the serial port directly, enabling faster transfer speeds to be realised. The DOS program written, used the processor clock to set the speed of the serial port and was designed to run on a 486 computer without the turbo switch on. As processor speeds increased, this program began to fail. Dennis Gröning rewrote this software using a different method of timing and offered all the COM ports to be selected so the program could be continued to be used with faster machines.
There was no reason why this small program was not developed to run on other computers i.e. Apple Mac, but this was not to be.
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Protocols | |||||||
| Manufacturer / Developer | Program | O/S | Faster S-Port | Protocol | File Conversion | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Z-Modem | OZ | |||||
Dennis Gröning | XY-Modem | OZ | |||||
| Dennis Gröning | Christie/ Rangerlink | ||||||
Desktops | |||||||
| Manufacturer | Program | O/S | Faster S-Port | Protocol | File Conversion | ||
| Tx - File Transfer System | ||||||
 | BBC Link | BBC | |||||
| PC Link | ||||||
| PC Link II | ||||||
| MAC Link | ||||||
 | Ranger Link | ||||||
 | Eazylink | 16 bit | |||||
| Z88Transfer | |||||||
| Eazylink 2 | |||||||
| Eazylink 2 | |||||||
| Eazylink 2 | |||||||
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