Fujitsu  FM Towns
fuj_fmtowns

Introduction

While the market for personal computers was growing and the range of their use was expanding dramatically, the FM TOWNS hypermedia personal computer was released in 1989, supporting multimedia data such as music, illustrations, and photographs in addition to applications for text and data processing. Employing Fujitsu-original Towns OS, this was the first computer in the world to be equipped with a CD-ROM drive on its main unit as a standard configuration, and gained great attention as a 32-bit personal computer able to handle music, images, and programs all at once. Price of main unit: from 338,000 yen; main memory: 1 MB to 6 MB

The FM-Towns Architecture was, like the Sharp X68000 series, serious about graphics. The system had hardware sprites, and could display up to 1024 sprites on screen simultaneously, each sprite being 16x16 in 16 colors. There was 128KByte of memory reserved for sprites. Although advanced, the Sharp X68000 had even better sprite hardware for serious action gaming.

Released 1989 Country Japan Brand Type FUJIT FM Series Name FM Towns CPU Class 80x86 CPU Intel 80386DX @16MHz Memory 1-2MB RAM, 6MB Max Sound Chip Rico RF5c68 / Yamaha YM2612 Sound 6 Channel FM, 8 channel 10-bit PCM, 1 channel 16-bit 44.1kHz PCM Display Chip none Display 720x512 32k/16M colors Sprites 1024 16x16 Sprites in 16 colors System OS Towns OS Storage Disk Drive and built in CD-ROM Original Price ¥338,000
Related Systems
 
Fujitsu FM Series
 
FM  Towns (1989)
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