The Hitachi MB6890 was released in 1980 with Hitachi Level-3 BASIC version 1.0 The "BASIC Master Level 3" was the first personal computer with support for display of Japanese characters. It was an 8-bit personal computer which greatly improved ease-of-use and performance by using "Extended BASIC". A color display, printer and mini floppy drive were available as peripheral devices, and the system was designed with full-functionality to enable use not only by individuals but also in applications like education, office work, data search and simulation. This machine helped drive a rapid penetration of personal computers into the business-oriented market. It was completed in 1980.

The computer came with 48KByte of main RAM and 16KByte of VRAM. It was capable of high resolution of 640x200 and could display up to 8 colors.

The following optional peripherals were available:

• Tape Recorder: 600/1200 baud
• RGB Video & Composite out
• Centronics Printer interface
• Light-Pen
• RS232C
• 6 Expansion slots
• Chinese Character ROM board
• 8088 CPU Board
• Disk Interface Board
• Z80 CPU Board
• RAM expansion boards

The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit microprocessor with some 16-bit features. It was designed by Motorola's Terry Ritter and Joel Boney and introduced in 1978. Although source compatible with the earlier Motorola 6800, the 6809 offered significant improvements over it and 8-bit contemporaries like the MOS Technology 6502, including a hardware multiplication instruction, 16-bit arithmetic, system and user stack registers allowing re-entrant code, improved interrupts, position-independent code and an orthogonal instruction set architecture with a comprehensive set of addressing modes.