The Scorpion ZS-256 was a very widespread ZX Spectrum clone produced in St. Petersburg by Sergey Zonov (same person behind the "

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

" clone). Introduced in 1991, it was fitted with a

Zilog Zilog, Inc. is an American manufacturer of microprocessors and 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers. It is also a supplier of application-specific embedded system-on-chip (SoC) products. Its most famous product is the Z80 series of 8-bit microp ...

Z80B processor, a

AY-3-8910 The AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice programmable sound generator (PSG) designed by General Instrument in 1978, initially for use with their 16-bit General Instrument CP1600, CP1610 or one of the PIC1650 series of 8-bit microcomputers. The AY-3-8910 and ...

sound chip, whilst RAM memory options ranged from 256 to 1024 KB. The computer was usually assembled in a mini tower configuration with a standard IBM power supply, allowing the connection of peripherals, drives, etc. Various expansions were produced, including ''SMUC'' – an adapter for IDE and

ISA Isa or ISA may refer to: Places * Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia * Isa, Kagoshima, Japan * Isa, Nigeria * Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan * Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain * Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia * Mount Is ...

slots, which allowed the use of

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...

hard drives A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magneti ...

and expansion cards. The Shadow Service Monitor (debugger) in the BASIC ROM was activated by pressing the Magic Button (NMI). There was also the option of fitting the machine with a ''ProfROM'' which included such software as a clock, hard disk utilities, and the ''ZX-Word'' text editor. The computer can work with TR-DOS,

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...

and

IS-DOS iS-DOS is a disk operating system (DOS) for Soviet/Russian ZX Spectrum clones. iS-DOS was developed in 1990 or 1991, by Iskra Soft, in Leningrad, Soviet Union, now Saint Petersburg, Russia. It handles floppy disks (double sided, double densit ...

systems. In 1996, the Scorpion ZS-256 Turbo+ version was introduced, featuring a "turbo" mode (7 MHz instead of the original's 3.50 MHz),

IDE Controller In computer hardware, a host controller, host adapter, or host bus adapter (HBA), connects a computer system bus, which acts as the host system, to other network and storage devices. The terms are primarily used to refer to devices for co ...

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFE ...

, interrupt controller,

8 slot, as part of the SMUC expansion card., expansion board 101-key PC type keyboard, 3.5 floppy disc drive and a XTR

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

(allowing access to ZX Net and FidoNet). Extension kit Scorpion ''GMX'' ''(Graphic Memory eXpander)'' for Scorpion ZS-256 Turbo+, comes with 2MB of RAM and can emulate other clones like the Pentagon 128. It has new graphics modes: 640 x 200 with 16 colors; 80x25 character text mode. Production of Spectrum-compatible computers ceased in 1998, with the Scorpion company focusing on the sale of IBM PC-compatibles and office equipment.

Versions

* Scorpion ZS-256 (1991) * Scorpion ZS-256 Turbo+ (1996) * Extension kit Scorpion GMX for Scorpion ZS-256 Turbo+ (1998)

Upgrades from the original ZX Spectrum 48/128K

* RAM 256 KB (GMX kit 2 MB) * ROM 64 KB (GMX kit 512 KB); * Additional GMX video modes: 640 x 200 with 16 colors; 80 x 25 character text mode. *

, interrupt controller,

8 slot, as part of the SMUC expansion card. * "

Turbo Mode On IBM PC compatible computers, the turbo button selects one of two run states: the default "turbo" speed or a reduced speed closer to the Intel 8086 CPU. It was relatively common on computers using the Intel 80286, Intel 80386 and Intel 804 ...

" that clocks the CPU up to 7 MHz * Shadow Service Monitor ( debugger) in ROM * AY8910/12 sound chip * Built-in printer interface (

Centronics Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector. History Foundations Centronics began as a division o ...

and RS232C); * Expansion board

IBM PC keyboard The keyboard for IBM PC-compatible computers is standardized. However, during the more than 30 years of PC architecture being frequently updated, many keyboard layout variations have been developed. A well-known class of IBM PC keyboards is the Mo ...

and mouse controller * TR-DOS,

and

systems * Built-in XTR

(ZX Net, FidoNet)

References

{{List of Soviet computer systems ZX Spectrum clones Computer-related introductions in 1991