Guide | |
|---|---|
Company History | |
| Timeline of Q1 | A comprehensive timeline of Q1, from 1969 to 2000. |
| Collective History | A (mostly) complete historical account of the inception and demise of Q1. Compiled by Artech between 2024 and 2026. |
| Alroy's Account (2004 ed., 2016 ed.) | A recounting of the company's early days by its founder, Daniel Alroy. |
| Rick's Account | A recounting of the company's early days by its lead engineer, Rick Smets. |
| Employees & People | Known employees and associates of Q1 Corporation, from 1969 to 1989. |
| Anecdotes | Various interesting tidbits and stories from around the office. |
Q1 Computer Systems | |
| Q1/T, 1972 | The first-generation system, based on the Intel 8008. Released in late 1972. |
| Q1/C, 1973 | An upgraded variant of the Q1/T with larger memory. Released in 1973. |
| Q1/LMC, 1974 | The second-generation system, based on the Intel 8080. Released in mid-1974. |
| Q1/Lite IWS, 1976 | The third-generation system, based on the Zilog Z80. Released in 1976. |
| Q1/Lite (88'), 1977 | (Unreleased) A system prototyped in 1977, based on the delayed Intel 8800. |
| Q1 Microlite, 1979? | Upgraded all-in-one desktop system with printer, based on the Z80 Q1/Lite. |
| Q1 B.O.M., 1980? | (Unreleased) A system prototyped in 1980 focused on electronic mail. |
| Q1-68000, 1981 | A high-end networked UNIX system, based on the Motorola 68000. |
Other Notable Products | |
| PL/I compiler | A staple of Q1's product line since 1972, a business compiler for micros. |
| Bubble memory | An obscure standard of solid-state memory developed by Q1 in the late 1970s. |
| Z80 Votrax TTS | A speech synthesis system developed for impaired users of Q1 systems. |
| Model 311 HDD | An early 5¼" 5MB "micro-Winchester" HDD for Microlites, released in 1981. |
Original Documents | |
| Photos | Photos of Q1 systems used in marketing and brochures, 1972-1979. |
| Magazines | Mentions of Q1 in computer magazines like Datamation, 1973-1978. |
| Documents | Manuals, brochures, guides, and other documents, 1973-1980. |
| Schematics | Full schematics of various Q1 computer systems, 1973-1980. |
| ROMs/Disks | Various ROM and floppy disk dumps from Q1 systems, 1976-1979? |
| Newspapers | Mentions of Q1 Corporation in newspaper print, 1971-1975. |
| Records | Copyright records, stock reports, etc., 1969-1978. |
| Download Archive | A compressed ~500MB ZIP file containing the entire archive of known Q1 material. |
Contemporary Q1 Resources | |
| Q1 @ Wikipedia | A rather outdated article that I contributed to Wikipedia about Q1. |
| Q1 @ peel.dk | A Danish electronics museum with an excellent page about Q1 systems. |
| Q1 @ Datormuseum | The Swedish Datormuseum put together a great presentation about their Q1/LMC. |
| Q1 @ datamuseum.dk | A Danish museum wiki article about their Q1 Microlite unit. |
| Q1 @ technikum29 | A German museum writes about their Q1/Lite unit. |
| Q1 @ H.C.M. NL | A Dutch museum with an artifact page for their Q1/Lite. |
| Q1 @ 1000BiT.it | An Italian entry with scans of several Q1 Microlite brochures. |
| Q1 @ The Byte Attic | Bernardo Kastrup of The Byte Attic documents his Q1/Lite IWS unit. |
| Q1 @ Hackaday | An (unfortunately) inaccurate article about The Byte Attic's Q1/Lite. |
| Q1 @ Smithsonian | A wildly inaccurate article that introduced many people (including me!) to Q1 history. |
| Q1/Lite Emulator | Documentation for Morten J. Christensen's emulator of the Z80 Q1/Lite IWS. |
Other Forgotten Early Microcomputers | |
| There are several other very early microcomputer systems, mostly predating the Altair 8800 from 1975, which are very significant, yet poorly documented. I have attempted to rectify this to some extent below. | |