Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

QL
     
         (Quantum Leap) Sir {Clive Sinclair}'s first
        {Motorola 68008}-based {personal computer}, developed from
        around 1981 and released about 1983.  The QL ran Sinclair's
        {QDOS} {operating system} which was the first {multitasking}
        OS on a home computer, though few programmers used this
        feature.  It had a structured, extended {BASIC} and a suite of
        integrated {application program}s written by {Psion}.  It
        featured innovative "{microdrive}s" which were random access
        tape drives.  It was not a success.
     
        The microdrives were innovative but probably a mistake.
        Though reliable and quite quick, they sounded like they were
        going to jam and explode, releasing a shower of plastic
        shavings and tape into your face.
     
        The QL and QDOS only supported two graphics modes - ominously
        named high res and low res.  High res had four (fixed) colours
        at a resolution of 512 by 256 {pixels}.  Low res had 8 colours
        (black, blue, red, magenta, green, cyan, yellow, white) plus a
        flash mode with 256 by 256 pixels.  The sound was next to
        useless - single channel single oscillator with various
        parameters for fuzz, pitch change.  There was one internal
        {font}, scalable to 2 heights and 3 widths.
     
        Peripherals and enhancements included a {GUI} on a plug-in
        {ROM}, accelerator cards ({Motorola 68020}, 4 MB RAM), {floppy
        disks} and {hard disks}.
     
        In 1996 there is still some interest in the QL, spread by the
        Internet of course.  {Emulation} software, {source code}, "The
        QL Hackers Journal" and similar are still available, and many
        QLs are on the net.
     
        {(http://www.imaginet.fr/~godefroy/english)}.
     
        (1996-08-01)