HIGH POWER
PERSONAL
COMPUTER

    A new Philips personal
computer, with the greatest
number of features and
power per dollar so far seen
in this country, will be
released in late October,
says Mr Ernst Layr, Office
Automation Systems
manager for Philips New
Zealand Ltd.
    He says the 16-bit com-
puter, which is still to be
given a name, uses the
powerful 80186 micropro-
cessor, runnng at eight
megahertz, and has an
entry-level specification of
128KB of RAM (Random
Access Memory) and 64KB
of ROM (Read Only Mem-
ory), with a 720KB 3.5 inch
micro floppy disk, inter-
faces for printer, composite
video, data communica-
tions, and external floppy
disk drives. Also included
in the basic specification is
a "pack-away" keyboard,
DOS Plus operating
system, BASIC interpreter,
utility programs and the
capability of using mono-
chrome, or between two
and 16 colours on the
display, all for an expected
retail price of less than
NZ$3,000.
    "The new Philips PC
will be available as an
entry-level machine, suit-
able for home or educa-
tional use, with the ability

to expand to meet the needs
of small to medium busi-
nesses and the professional
programmer," says Ernst
Layr. "The expansion is ac-
complished by means of
boards which can be install-
ed by the user to give extra
RAM, connections for a se-
cond 720KB floppy disk,
networking facility, IEC
and IEEE interfaces, and,
subject to approval from
the New Zealand Post Of-
rice, access to Viewdata on
the CEPT standard."
    He says the top-line con-
figuration will feature
640KB of RAM, two
720KB microfloppies, in-
terfaces for a "mouse" and
hard disk, a CMOS calen-
dar clock, and Open Ac-
cess, in addition to the en-
try-level features ... all
for less than NZ$6,000.
    Besides the DOS Plus
operating system, which is
contained within the 64KB
of ROM (leaving almost the
entire 128KB of RAM
available to the user), Con-
current DOS and MS DOS
are supported.
    The new Philips PC,
which slots into the com-
pany's existing range bet-
ween the P2000 and the
P3100 as an additional pro-
duct, can be used with a
wide variety of printers,
and either a high resolution
monochrome monitor, a
medium resolution colour
or monochrome monitor,
or a domestic TV receiver.
    "Because the CPU has
so many features packed in-
to it, fewer expansion
boards ... in this case only
two ... are needed," says
Ernst Layr. "The CPU
comes complete with flop-
py disk controller, parallel
and serial interfaces, colour
graphics interface and
operating system." New
Zealand will become the
first non-European country
to release the new PC.


    The new, yet-to-be named Philips PC showing the fold.
away keyboard, twin micro Floppies, and (on screen) GEM
-- Graphics Environment Manager -- which will be im-
plemented with the machine. (Several screen options
available).

 1985                                                                                                                                                INQUIRY 150~'