Amstrad Schneider  NC 200
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Amstrad NC200

The Amstrad NC200 was an upgraded version of the Amstrad NC100 word processor. It featured a larger screen with 16 lines instead of 8, and had twice the number of vertical pixels. The NC200 also came with a 720KByte 3.5" Floppy disk drive, and the format of the disks were compatible with MS-DOS. The system came with 128KByte memory, included a few games, and a new spreadsheet application.

Because of the new capabilitis, the power consumption had increased as well. The machine now was powerd by 5 large C-Cell batteries and the disk drive was a power hog, that could only function for a few hours on brand new batteries.

Zilog Z80 CPU 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 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 design was licensed to Synertek and Mostek as well as the European SGS.

The Z80s instruction set is binary compatible with the Intel 8080, so that 8080 code such as the CP/M Operating System and Intel's PL/M compiler for the 8080 can run unmodified on the Z80. The Z80 had many enhancements over the 8080 such as 16-bit data movement instructions, block copy and block I/O instructions, single bit addressing of all registers, IX/IY offset registers, better interrupt system and a complete duplicate register file for context switching during an interrupt.

Source: WikiPedia
Technical Details
Released 1993 Brand Amstrad Type Amstrad Schneider NC/PPC Name NC 200 CPU Class Z80 CPU Zilog Z80A @3.58MHz Memory RAM: 128kB Sound Chip none Sound Beeper Display Chip none Display 80x16 text
480x128 mono graphics
Best Text 80x16 Best Color monochrome Best Graphics 480x128 monochrome Sprites n/a System OS Internal Software Storage Internal Disk Drive, PC Card
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NC  200 (1993)
Related Media
 
Z80 CPU
Collection of books on the Z80 8-bit CPU used in various home-computers
World Wide Web Links
 
Wikipedia: The Z80 CPU
Wikipedia page on the very popular Z80 8-bit CPU used in many computers of the 1980's era.