The X1 Turbo Z III is the successor of the X1 Turbo Z and ZII. The 8bit CPU (Z80) has reached its limits here.
Like the X1 Turbo Z II, the Z III is VCCI compliant (electromagnetic emissions control) and has 128 KB RAM as standard, but does not have any remote connector for data recorder. Otherwise it is identical to the Z II.
The most famous and strong point of X1 series is the Programmable Charactor Generator(PCG).
The languages available were Hu-basic (developed by HUDSON soft), Turbo Basic and new Z-basic. The new Z basic language introduced enhanced functions (graphics and sound), but needed 128 KB RAM to operate. It was bundled with the Turbo ZII and ZIII, but Turbo Z owners had to buy it separately. An expansion memory board fitted with 64 KB RAM was then sold with the box, so Turbo Z systems could have 128 KB RAM. In fact you could add up to 256 KB RAM on this board, so Turbo Z owners could finally upgrade more easily their systems than ZII and ZIII ones.
The X68000 serie was launched one year earlier and finally, will replace the X1 serie.
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NAME
X1 Turbo Z III
MANUFACTURER
Sharp
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
Japan
YEAR
1988
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke keyboard, JIS standard
CPU
Sharp Z80 A
SPEED
4 MHz
RAM
128 KB
VRAM
96 KB
ROM
128 KB + 40 KB
TEXT MODES
20 / 40 / 80 x 10 / 12 / 20 / 25
GRAPHIC MODES
320 x 200 / 320 x 192 / 320 x 400 / 640 x 192 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400
COLORS
4096
SOUND
3 voices PSG + 8 voices FM
SIZE / WEIGHT
Unknown
I/O PORTS
Two I/O ports, analog video out, disk drive expansion, video in/out, RS232c port, printer port, keyboard, 2 x joysticks (Atari standard), audio out
