Cast your mind back to 1984 (at least 15 years ago) when I was struggling with a VT120 emulator for the BBC Master.

Imagine for twice the price of that BBC machine you could get a multi-tasking machine with monitor and built in modem. It would also have integrated word processor - database - spreadsheet and graphics package. It would provide email - remote logging and an electronic office all in one compact box.

Not so hard to imagine as ICL produced it - right there - right then.

Well worn OPD short back and sides	2*high reliability microdrives 2*phone connections Serial port Monitor port 4*expansion cartridges
Well worn OPD accessories	14 inch mono monitor high reliability microdrive exapnsion cartridge

I pass you over to 2 experts:-

From Charlie Stross

Is it a computer? Is it a telephone? Is it a tape recorder? - No, it's the ICL One Per Desk (aka the ComputerPhone).

The IBM personal computer was slow to take off in the UK, where the personal computing scene lagged about 24 months behind the US for most of the eighties. Moreover, the Apple II never gained a dominant share of the market. Thus, many weird and eldritch designs for personal and business computers thrived before the dead hand of standardization clamped down in 1985-1986.

The British computing scene was dominated at the time by Clive Sinclair,whose ZX series of 8-bit home micros had out-sold everything else on the market. In 1981, Sinclair began work on a new system, the QL or "Quantum Leap." Equipped with a cut-down Motorola 68000 (actually a 68008) and microdrives (Sinclair's miniature tape storage units, similar in design to a scaled-down 8-track audio tape), the Sinclair Quantum Leap was intended to be both a home and a business computer, and to take Sinclair into the world of 16-bit computing.

ICL, a large British mainframe company, wanted to gain a toehold in the business computing market. However, they had no experience of designing, building, or marketing personal computers. While the other business computer makers (such as Apricot) were working on (non- IBM-compatible) MS-DOS machines, ICL decided to build an incompatible version of the Sinclair Quantum Leap.

The ICL One Per Desk surfaced in 1984, and sank again around 1987, having sold a few thousand units. It was marketed in Australia by the telephone company as the 'ComputerPhone' and met with a resounding lack of interest. Indeed, the ICL One Per Desk probably ranks as the vermiform appendix of business computing = less useful by far than an IBM PC-jr or an Apple 3.

A One Per Desk is essentially a Sinclair Quantum Leap at heart = it boasts the same 68008 processor and operating system. However, its microdrives have been ruggedized and tuned for improved reliability by ICL's engineers (who, in the process, adopted a new format which renders them wholly incompatible with the Sinclair version). It has an incompatible expansion bus and can load software in the form of plug-in ROM cartridges and microdrive (tape-loop) cartridges. It has a single serial port = unidirectional, for sending data to a line printer. Thus, it is totally impossible to get data onto or off of a One Per Desk (other than via the modem).

The main application suite bundled with the OPD was a version of the Psion Xchange integrated package supplied with the Sinclair Quantum Leap. However, the One Per Desk couldn't run ordinary Sinclair QL software; ICL had made just enough changes to the system to render it incompatible with its parent architecture, and supplied an inadequate cut-down BASIC interpreter.

However, the most interesting aspect of the One Per Desk is its telephony integration. Marketed in 1984, shortly after the privatization of British Telecom, the OPD was one of the first machines designed to plug into the newly demonopolized UK phone network, and the first computer sold in the UK with an integral modem. At that time, the transition to a free market was incomplete; for example, it was not legal to sell telephone answering machines in competition with BT (who leased them for a hefty profit). Thus, the One Per Desk's telephony capabilities were curiously limited.

The OPD came with an internal modem (300 baud and 1200/75 baud) and telephone handset, and could plug into two lines, acting as a sophisticated featurephone. Up to twenty pre-recorded announcements could be stored, and it could collect call logging and duration information = but although it could play a message in response to incoming calls, it couldn't record or store voice mail.

The One Per Desk was also capable of connecting to Prestel (British Telecom's videotex service) and of acting as a terminal for ICL's mainframes, thus making it a handy peripheral for those centralized computing services.

One Per Desks were also capable of calling each other and exchanging documents as 'electronic faxes' via direct modem connections, but had no built-in LAN connectivity options.

Towards the end, One Per Desks were marketed with more memory and 'real' floppy disk drives = but as the Sinclair Quantum Leap failed to gain a following as anything other than a games machine, and the ICL One Per Desk was crippled by total incompatibility with anything else on the planet, it never really went anywhere.

The point of the One Per Desk as a study in dead media is that it showed a tantalizing glimpse of the way personal computing *might* have evolved. For a machine released in 1984 to have integral messaging and modem capabilities was pretty radical. The idea of the One Per Desk = to be a centralized desktop information resource, with total access to online services, mainframes, and other One Per Desks -- is one that is slowly being realized today by PC's with built-in modems and internet connectivity.

From Robert Klein - Sinclair QL F.A.Q.

ICL One Per Desk (also Merlin Tonto or Computerphone)

This FAQ part is an (shorted) article in SQLW in Oct. 1991

The OPD (One Per Desk) computer was made by ICL Ltd., as a collaborative project between ICL, British Telecom and Sinclair with Psion providing the software. The same machine was badged for BT as the Merlin Tonto and for Australian Telecom as the Computerphone. The machine was intended for the busy executive with only limited computer skills. Most operations use multiple choice menus.

The hardware is based on the QL using the same 68008 microprocessor, QL ULAs, 128K of RAM and microdrive data storage. The machine has a 'footprint' of about the same length but twice the depth of the QL. Being launched shortly after the QL, the OPD suffered from the bad publicity attached to the microdrives, although ICL had much improved the reliability of the units. Despite this poor start, many hundreds were sold to local authorities, government departments and large companies.

A typical OPD featured a mono (black and white) monitor, twin microdrives, battery-backed clock, on-screen calculator, enhanced telephone handling, modem, XChange software (Abacus, Archive, Quill and Easel), Basic and messaging (fax look-alike between OPDs).

The OPD is designed to be left on and the screen will br() if no keys are pressed for 10 minutes. Pressing any key, or an incoming call, re-activates the screen. The monitor is intended to be switched off between sessions leaving the computer powered for unattended functions. Monitors are available in 9 inch black and white or 14 inch Microvitec colour.

The microdrives are similar to those on the QL, bat save the data in a different density. Although br() cartridges can be used on either machine, the OPD cannot read QL cartridge data. There is a program (for the QL) by Dave Walker of DiscOver fame, that can convert data and Basic from the OPD to the QL and vice versa. The OPD records cartridge use and read failures, and warns when the cartridge is due to renewal. The microdrives are very reliable.

The telephone has auto-dialing from a saved Telephone Directory / Adress file of as many as 500 entries if required, with optional monitoring of cost and duration of calls. A running total is kept in memory. The directory has a search routine and short code dialling. There is a re-dial facility of any of the last six calls. Calls can be initiated through a built-in loudspeaker, the handset being picked up only when the connection is made. The machine will answer incoming calls using a programmable computer voice chip with different replies available for different times, eg lunch, holidays, gone home etc. There is no facility to record incoming calls.

The modem is built-in and capable of Viewdata and Glass Teletype communications. This enables connection to Prestel, Yellow Pages, Tony Firshman's Board and many others. Screens can be saved to memory using the 'Snapshot' option, or entire programs can be downloaded to microdrive. Text can be prepared off-line to save phone charges.

The software is an enhanced suite of the programs supplied with the QL with the import/export of data between applications simplified. Being ROM-based, it loads quickly and without read failures. The four are brought together under an operating 'shell' called Xchange Task Control. Up to eight 'tasks' can be in progress at one time. Import and Export between Psion programs is fast and simple. Xchange was an optional extra.

Basic is loaded from certridge and is a reduced version of Superbasic. Many of the features of Superbasic are not available on the OPD. There are no graphics as such (CIRCLE, LINE, border, FLASH etc.), no EXEC and no DIR. The screen size is also slightly smaller. QL Superbasic programs can be transferred to the OPD but need considerable editing before use. Although using the same CPU, QL machine code programs cannot be run on the OPD. There are differences in the way the OPD handles the screen etc. that make QL programs incompatible.

Many OPDs were supplied with 'Messaging', a fax look-alike. This is in the form of a capsule that plugs into the back of the unit. The capsule contains a ROM eith the necessary code, which enables OPDs to send pre-types text to each other using the telephone system. Received Messages can be edited and sent on to other users, printed or saved on microdrive. Later ROMs allow the messages to be sent at pre-set times and to different numbers to take advantage of cheap rate calls.

The OPD is provided with a serial port, but works in one direction only, being intended solely for printer use. It is possible to download Basic files directly to the QL usingthe SER2 port on the QL and a suitable cable. No input from the QL is posssible by this route.

Later improvements included disk drives from PCML (with 256K extra memory), and another from Computer One, but these are no longer manufactured and can only be obtained on the second hand market. A variety of plug-in capsules were also provided, but most were to enable the OPD to ICL mainframe computers and are of little use to enthusiasts. There were later options to allow direct transfer of files direct from microdrive, via the telephone line, between OPDs and to import data into Quill or Abacus from Bulletin Boards.

It is not possible to simply plug-in extra memory as on the QL because the OPD requires special code to 'log-on and identify' the memory. A 128K expansion unit was made but few seem to have been sold.

Software is in very short supply, possibly because there is no organized usr group such as Quanta, although some business oriented programs were produced. A diary/ appointments program has been seen and also a CP/M operating system is available on one version of the disk drives. It is reported that Basic and 'C' compilers were produced but no sign of one has been seen.

QL owners who use their machine mostly for the Psion package will find the OPD easy to use and in a business environment, a very useful tool. Sadly, it suffers from the lack of compatibility with the QL in the most important area, programs. Very little software is produced for the QL in Superbasic now and useful programs and Tony Tebby's utilities cannot be used. The most promising area lies in Xchange applications and it is possible to transfer the Archiver group of programs once sold by Eidersoft.