The FM-7 ("Fujitsu Micro 7") is a home computer created by

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

. It was first released in 1982 and was sold in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is a stripped-down version of Fujitsu's earlier

FM-8 The FM-8 (Fujitsu Micro 8) is a personal computer developed and manufactured by Fujitsu in May 1981. It was Fujitsu's second microcomputer released to the public after the LKIT-8 kit computer, and the first in the "FM" series. The FM-8 was an e ...

computer, and during development it was referred to as the "FM-8 Jr.". Although it was designed to be a cut-down version of the FM-8 (with the FM-7 costing 126,000

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

, compared to 218,000 yen for the FM-8), most notably removing the (expensive)

bubble memory Bubble memory is a type of non-volatile computer memory that uses a thin film of a magnetic material to hold small magnetized areas, known as ''bubbles'' or ''domains'', each storing one bit of data. The material is arranged to form a series o ...

technology, the FM-7 was given a more advanced

AY-3-8910 The AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice programmable sound generator (PSG) designed by General Instrument in 1978, initially for use with their 16-bit General Instrument CP1600, CP1610 or one of the PIC1650 series of 8-bit microcomputers. The AY-3-8910 and ...

sound chip capable of three voice sound synthesis, leading to a strong uptake among the hobbyist computer market in Japan and making it a more popular system than the FM-8. The FM-7 primarily competed with the

NEC PC-8801 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the three major Japane ...

and

Sharp X1 The , sometimes called the Sharp X1 or CZ-800C, is a series of home computers released by Sharp Corporation from 1982 to 1988. It is based on a Zilog Z80 CPU. The RGB display monitor for the X1 had a television tuner, and a computer screen co ...

series of computers in the early 1980s. It was succeeded by the FM-77 series of computers in 1984, which featured backwards compatibility with the FM-7. The FM-77 series was later succeeded by the 32-bit

FM Towns The is a Japanese personal computer, built by Fujitsu from February 1989 to the summer of 1997. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and PC games, but later became more compatible with IBM PC compatibles. ...

in 1989. The FM-7 is based around the

6809 The Motorola 6809 ("''sixty-eight-oh-nine''") 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 ...

chip, which was also used in home computers such as the

TRS-80 Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer and sometimes nicknamed the CoCo, is a line of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Co ...

and

Dragon 32/64 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before mov ...

, as well as several

arcade games An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

Hardware

*Two MC 68B09 CPUs @ 2 MHz: one main CPU and one graphics processor. *Screen Resolution: 640×200, 8 colors *

Memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

: 40 KB

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

, 64 KB

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

*Sound: 3-channel (

) PSG chip, built-in speaker mounted near the top of the unit. From FM77AV onwards, the system includes the 6-channel

YM2203 The YM2203, a.k.a. OPN (FM Operator Type-N), is a six-channel (3 FM and 3 SSG) sound chip developed by Yamaha. It was the progenitor of Yamaha's OPN family of FM synthesis chips used in many video game and computer systems throughout the 1980s an ...

(3 PSG channels + 3 FM channels, making it a total of six). *Interfaces:

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such a ...

, monitor and

Centronics Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector. History Foundations Centronics began as a division ...

ports, 3 expansion slots. *Storage: 5.25"

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

Operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

OS-9 OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, multi-user operating systems, developed in the 1980s, originally by Microware Systems Corporation for the Motorola 6809 microprocessor. It was purchased by Radisys Corp in 2001, an ...

, (compatible with

Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer and sometimes nicknamed the CoCo, is a line of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Com ...

) *Three slots for optional plug-in cards, including a

Z-80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples we ...

CPU and additional

ports. *Full-size keyboard, with keys handling multiple functions (as many as 5, depending on what SHIFT/KANA/GRAPH/etc key is pressed). *10 Function Keys at the top, pre-programmed with shortcuts (LIST, etc.). *Numeric keypad (on right) and cursor-control keys (upper-right).

F-BASIC

The included "F-BASIC" is an enhanced version of the

Color BASIC Color BASIC is the implementation of Microsoft BASIC that is included in the Read-only memory, ROM of the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computers manufactured between 1980 and 1991. BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a hi ...

language used on the TRS-80 Color Computer. Changes include a different character set that includes

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

and a few

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

, the ability to have graphics appear on the default text screen, and several new commands such as BEEP, CONNECT, MON, SYMBOL, INTERVAL, MERGE, RANDOMIZE, SWAP, and TERM. There are also strings for TIME$ and DATE$, which access a temporary built-in internal clock, though if the power is turned off, the time and date are lost. While F-Basic has commands that Color BASIC does not, most commands featured in both versions of the language operate in exactly the same fashion. While the BASIC EDIT command works the same as on Color BASIC, the cursor position is important on the FM-7: there is a small keypad on the upper-right of the FM-7 with cursor-control keys (arrows, INSERT & DELETE), and wherever the user decides to position the cursor, it will move it there and affect whatever is underneath it. Both Microsoft and Fujitsu share the copyright on the

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

Models

There were several models of the computer: * 1982 — FM-7: M68B09, RAM 64 KB, ROM 48 KB, VRAM 48 KB, 640×200, 8 colors * 1984 — FM-NEW7: M68B09 integrated memory and LSI chip (cheap production). The features are the same as the FM-7. * 1984 — FM77: M68B09E, RAM 64 KB (max 256 KB), VRAM 48 KB * 1985 — FM77L2, M68B09E * 1985 — FM77L4, M68B09E * 1985 — FM77AV: M68B09E, RAM 128 KB (max 192 KB), ROM 48 KB, VRAM 96 KB, 640×200 (8 colors), 320×200 (4096 colors), 4096 colors, 1 (AV-1) or 2 (AV-2) floppy 3.5-inch 320 KB * 1986 — FM77AV20: M68B09E, like FM77AV but: floppy 640 KB * 1986 — FM77AV40: M68B09E, like FM77AV20 but: RAM 192 KB (max 448 KB), VRAM 144 KB to support 320×200 (262144 colors) * 1987 — FM77AV20EX: M68B09E, RAM 128 KB (max 192 KB), VRAM 96 KB, 640x400 ? * 1987 — FM77AV40EX: M68B09E, RAM 192 KB (max 448 KB), VRAM 144 KB, 640x400 ? * 1988 — FM77AV40SX: M68B09E, RAM 192 KB (max 448 KB), VRAM 144 KB

References

External links

Fujitsu FM 7
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM Museum

, 8-Bit Computer Page, Larry's Homepage
Oh!FM-7 museum
{{Fujitsu Fujitsu computers 6809-based home computers Home video game consoles