The Torch Graduate

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The Torch Graduate (front)

The Torch Graduate is cased in a 10" x 15" x 6" stell case, it has its own pair of 360K floppy disc drives, There is a power LED in the top right.

The Torch Graduate (right side)

The Torch Graduate (back)

The Torch Graduate has 2 slots for full sides ISA cards on the left. The fan originally had a foam filter but it has been worn away or perished. The case has a bit of rust on it, this happened before I acquired it.

The Torch Graduate (bottom)

The ribbon cable on the left connects to a BBC Micro's 1MHz bus.

The Torch Graduate with top cover removed

The Torch Graduate has 2 x Epson SD-521 360K floppy disc drives which are visible in the top left of the picture, this means that the Graduate does not require a disc interface in the BBC Micro. The slots for the 2 ISA expansion cards are in the bottom right.

The Torch Graduate without the disc drives 

This picture shows the Torch Graduate circuit board. The cable at the top connects to the BBC Micro's 1MHz bus.

The Torch Graduate circuit board (top)

The Torch Graduate circuit board showing clockwise from top right:

• The Intel 8088 CPU to right of the top IC with a white label
• The 8088 ROM is the white labelled IC below the top, white labelled, IC.
• The WD1770-PH floppy disc controller is on the right above the ISA Expansion sockets
• The ISA expansion card sockets are on the bottom right.
• The plug for the floppy discs is in the middle of the bottom edge.
• The 256K of RAM is in the bottom left
• The 1MHz Tube plug is in the top left
• The white labelled 6502 ROM is right of the 1MHz.

Here is a Hi-Res picture of the Torch Graduate circuit board .

The Torch Graduate circuit board (bottom)

This show a number of wire patches to the circuit board.

Data Technologies Ltd, a split off, from Torch Computers Ltd, originially developed the Torch Graduate, but had problems completing the product. Torch took over the development and completed the Graduate.

The Torch Graduate is a PC Compatible second processor for the BBC Micro, actually is is really a stand alone computer that uses the BBC Micro's screen, keyboard, serial and parallel ports. The Model Number is G800/2 and the Serial Number is 85186107.

The Torch Graduate has:

• Intel 8088 CPU clocked at 5MHz
• 256K RAM expandable to 640KB ( according to advertisements)
• 2 x Epson 360K Floppy disc drives
• Its own power supply
• 2 x ISA Expansion Slots.

The Torch Graduate runs MS-DOS version 2.11. It only requires connection to the BBC Micro's 1MHz port, no ROM is required in the BBC Micro. When the Graduate is booted, 6502 code from the Torch 6502 ROM, is copied 256 bytes at a time into the BBC Micro's 1MHz Bus data page. This allows the BBC micro to boot before the Graduate completes booting MSDOS and installs the Graduate code in the BBC micro.

The Torch Graduate included the Psion Xchange software suite.

The Torch Graduate can be run in BBC mode using the Data Technologies Graduate DFS (GDFS) which is booted from the Graduate's disc instead of MSDOS.

In June 1995 Personal Computer World published a review titled "Torch Graduate ".

Here is a Torch Graduate Brochure.
Here is the Torch Graduate User Guide.
The Torch Graduate also included the Microsoft MS-DOS version 2 User Guide.