This one was very similar to the 6128 except that the disk drive is a 5 1/4" one !! No more cursed 3" disks that were so hard to find in 85 because nobody else was using them.
The keyboard was exactly the same as the 6128. But if you look at the connections you can see MIDI plugs and a RS232 connector ! Alan Sugar tries to implement some real standards at last... Clearly, Amstrad wanted to prepare for the 16/32 bit battle, declared with the soon-to-be-launched Atari 520ST, but with an old Z80!! A lost cause from the start...
The RAM is not really 512k, but rather like its brother the 6128, there were several banks used as virtual RAM disks : 5 banks of 94 k each + the initial 42 k .
There were new BASIC instructions: CIRCLE, PAINT, SCROLL, CLOCK, MUSIC, etc. and many others to control communication with the RS232 connector.
The 5512 had its own internal clock that would keep time even after the computer was switched off. Wow!
But most impressive was the GUI. Yes, there was a real Graphical User Interface like Windows !! But it was slow, the Z80 could not perform miracles.
Of course it was fully compatible with the other CPCs.
OK, IT'S A JOKE ! Hebdogiciel (a very well known French newspaper/magazine in the 80's) made this joke on the first page of N°138 in June 85. AMSTRAD took them to court asking for 100 million francs in damages, arguing that this joke stopped the sales of the 6128 for one week, which may have been true...
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If I remember correctly, the aim of the joke was to tell Amstrad not letting their users down and to push them making a better machine. The disclaimer about the article being a joke was (said to be) forgotten/lost in the final layout, and got published the week after as en erratum.
This satiric newspaper was mostly source-code oriented (typos included !) and the news part contained lots of provocations towards computer firms (along with random dark/absurd humor illustrations) which made them go to court quite often. They also ran a weekly programming challenge ("Les deulignes" meaning the twolines) praising short theme-free programs (utility, joke, fun, tips) which respected the rule of being programmed in BASIC and were 2 lines long. Lines could contain several statements.
An example of joke-program featured that I remember : 10 cls : print "How to keep an idiot busy for hours ?" : print "Press any key to figure out..." 20 while inkey$$"" : wend : goto 10
Wednesday 12th December 2018
Frédéric
Does anyone know how to get service in the US for a old amstrd pc?
Saturday 30th December 2006
Lisa White (US)
NAME
CPC 5512
MANUFACTURER
Amstrad
TYPE
Home Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
July 1986
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Basic
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke keyboard (same as CPC-6128)
CPU
Z80A
SPEED
4 Mhz
RAM
512 kb (42kb + 5 banks of 96kb)
ROM
48 kb
TEXT MODES
20x25 in 16 colors, 40x25 in 4 colors, 80x25 in 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES
200x160 in 16 colors, 320x200 in 4 colors, 640x200 in 2 colors
COLORS
27
SOUND
3 voices, 6 octaves + 1 channel for white noise
I/O PORTS
1 x joystick (Atari standard), Tape interface, Monitor, External FDD, Printer, Expansion port, Headphone/Sound output, FDD power in (5v DC), Power in (12v DC), MIDI port, RS232
(France, summer 86)
