Osborne Portable
Osborne Vixen
osborne_4

Osborne Vixen (Osborne 4)

The Osborne Vixen is a luggable portable computer manufactured by the Osborne Computer Corporation in 1984.

The Vixen runs on a 4MHz Z80 processor with 64K of RAM, and a 4K EEPROM. It comes with two 400KByte 5.25" double sided double-density disk drives, and weighs a hefty 18 pounds.

The Osborne Vixen ran on CP/M 2.2 and came bundled with WordStar, SuperCalc and MBasic, making it a good machine for small businesses. The Osborne Vixen was also known as the Osborne 4.

CPU View - Zilog Z80 Family

The Z80 quickly became popular in the personal computer market, with many early personal computers, such as the TRS-80 and Sinclair ZX80, using the Z80 as their central processing unit (CPU). It was also widely used in home computers, such as the MSX range, SORD, and the Amstrad CPC, as well as in many arcade games. Additionally, it was also used in other applications such as industrial control systems, and embedded systems. The Z80 was widely used until the mid-1980s, when it was gradually replaced by newer microprocessors such as the Intel 80286 and the Motorola 68000.

The Z80 microprocessor was developed by Zilog, a company founded by Federico Faggin in 1974. The Z80 was released in July 1976, as a successor to the Intel 8080. It was designed to be fully compatible with the 8080, but also included new features such as an improved instruction set, more powerful interrupts, and a more sophisticated memory management system.

The Z80 quickly became popular in the personal computer

Technical Details
Released 1983 Country United States Brand Osborne Type Osborne Portable Name Osborne Vixen CPU Class Z80 CPU Zilog Z80 @4MHz Memory RAM: 64kB Sound Chip none Sound Internal Beeper Display Chip none Display 80x24 Amber Text Best Color Amber monochrome Graphics Text only Sprites none System OS CP/M 2.2 Original Price $1298
Related Systems 💾
Osborne Portable
External Links 🌐
Z80 CPU
Wikipedia page on the very popular Z80 8-bit CPU used in many computers of the 1980's era.