The NEC PC 8801 was the successor of PC 8001. It offered fine colour graphics.
It had an optional MS-Dos board. It was one of the fist, if not the first color CPM computer.
It ran in three bootable modes: CPM, MS-Dos, and N88-Basic. The N-Basic would natively boot on the system without disk, just like the PC 8001. It also had a software / hardware switch to turn it into PC 8001 mode.
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Personally I''m surprised that this system was not released outside of Asia because it was very powerful in its later years with FM sound and full colour graphics and if it was released it would have probably buried the IBM PC
Tuesday 26th May 2020
James (Ireland)
I was in the Air Force stationed in Japan (Misawa Air Base), and I bought the PC-8801n in Aomori, Japan with my reenlistment bonus in April 1982. The manuals were all in Japanese, so I hadn''t really been able to use it to its full potential. I used it for the next five years until I bought a Dell System 25, but the PC-8801 (now my secondary computer) lasted for about 12 years (until 1994) when it became inoperable due to the post office damaging the 8" dual drive when I shipped it from one duty station (Key West) to the next (Hawaii).
The NEC PC8801 was the followup from the NEC PC8001. It was distributed in west Europe by NEC Neuss Germany. These even manufactured computer furniture to be bought by complete systems. In the U.K. this was also a well know model in the marked of office equipment. The PC8801 had 2 basic interpretors in ROM, at first the bill gates written N-basic from Microsoft and second the very special Microsoft N-88 basic with extended commands for graphics etc. You could load CP/M operating system by discette. At first the CP/M from the PC8001 computer, and later also CP/M in PC8801 mode. In GB was at last also availble separate double DS/DD 8 inch discette station. The discettes had 1,2 Mb capacity in this format. Also was available a harddisk station from Japan for these computers. It''s brand was Anritsu, and the capacity was 10 Mb.
In America was another development going, also selden sold in Europe, the famous APC computer. This was a more IBM compatible model, with build in 2 x 51/4 inch discette stations. The APC was the counterpart for the Northstar pc''s.
only link for available software http://www.frimu.nl/bu/nec.htm
Saturday 10th November 2012
Frits Meuris (Nederland)
NAME
PC 8801
MANUFACTURER
NEC
TYPE
Home Computer
ORIGIN
Japan
YEAR
December 1981
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
N88-BASIC, N-BASIC (PC8001 MODE)
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke keyboard 67 key + 20 key numeric pad + 5 function keys
CPU
uPD780C-1(Z80A compatible)
SPEED
4 MHz
RAM
64 KB (up to 576 KB)
VRAM
48 KB
ROM
72 KB
TEXT MODES
36/40/72/80 characters x 20/25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
640 x 200 (8 colours), 640 x 400 (Monochrome)
COLORS
8
SOUND
3 FM channels + 3 SSG + 6 rhythms + 1 ADPCM
SIZE / WEIGHT
main case: 496W x 342D x 107H / 7.1 Kg keyboard: 464W x 214D x 73H / 2 Kg