[Radio Wrangler]

The Sinclair QL used a Motorola MC68000 series microprocessor, essentially a 16 bit CPU but a model with with the external busses thinned down to 8 bits to cheapen the memory required. Sinclair advertised it as a 16 bit machine, but it was one with an 8-bit bottleneck.

The Commodore Amiga computers are a different design and use MC68000 family models with full 16 bit buses for the memory.

The QL launched (eventually it got out) with Sinclair's 'microdrive' tape cartridge as a cheaper alternative to a floppy drive. It was a bit of a disaster.

This same microdrive was also used in the ICL one-per-desk microcomputer/terminal thing. ICL re-engineered the thing to try to make it more reliable, but their whole effort was overtaken by the progress at other companies and the rise of the IBM PC as a standard.

Sinclair generated huge amounts of disappointment with the QL. It looked like they were still designing the thing while they were taking sales orders.

The QL was a forwards looking and innovative machine, but it was spoiled just enough and in many ways to disappoint people. THe mismatch between promises and delivery being the worst.

David