Sinclair QL

The QL was an attempt by Sinclair to move upmarket with a "business" style machine. Compared to the earlier Spectrum, it featured a real keyboard and built-in microdrives. The CPU architecture was also different, being the newer 68008 rather than the Z80 used in previous machines. A notable feature was the operating system QDOS, which was the first to have pre-emptive multitasking. 

Although it had good features for its price, the QL suffered from some reliability issues and the 68008 processor was noticeably less powerful than the 'full' 68000 processor used in machines such as the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. It wasn't the sales success that Sinclair had hoped for, and along with the unsuccessful C5 electric vehicle this led to the company being taken over by Amstrad.

The museum's QL is on display but sadly doesn't work at the moment.