A number of readers of this Blog and the World Of Spectrum Forums have expressed an interest in the material being made available in the form of a book instead of purely on-line material. To this end, I have turned my downloadable mini-book proposal into a more complete and professional book that will be made available from Lulu. The book is expected to come out at between £10 and £20 a copy, but it all depends on the final number of pages.
"The Sinclair ZX Spectrum ULA" is pitched to be readable by the novice, but quickly moves into more complicated territory, and would be readable by anyone with a general interest who can follow boolean logic, the electronics hobbyist, the electronic engineering student, retro-hardware fan or just a piece of shelf-candy for the Sinclair freak. It gives a thorough discussion of Ferranti, their ULA and a detailed examination of every functional unit of the Sinclair design. It introduces each idea from the ground up and tries not to make the assumption that the reader has read the particular subject matter before. However it does not dwell on the basics, as there are plenty of texts available that can develop those areas further. If anything, it should be far more readable than this Blog.
If you are someone who would want to buy a copy of the book, please drop me an email (see contacts) or fill in the form below, as numbers would be helpful. I think Lulu do bulk discounts, so knowing numbers in advance would help. I will also keep you informed as to its progress. Currently I'm aiming to get the book complete over the Summer, as the schematic annotation is going to take a long time....
The technical details of the 6C001E ULA will of course be made available through this website in keeping with the philosophy of being part of the community, but the book will offer the most comprehensive write up and will be completed first.
I've put together a selection of six pages from the book so far, downloadable from here. It is just a taster, as the real detail has yet to be compiled into a presentable form.
Edit: 29/12/2008 - Clarified expected price of book.
Edit: 30/04/2009 - Update completion estimate to be over the summer.
Edit: 25/06/2009 - Added link to example PDF.
By completing this form you enable me to see the level of interest there is in the book. I will not normally keep you informed via email, as announcements will be made via this Blog and notifications sent via the rss feed and Twitter. Occasionally though I may send out an email to those who have registered an interest.