The Memotech MTX500, MTX512 and RS128 are a series of Zilog

Z80A 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 ...

processor-based home computers released by Memotech in 1983 and 1984.

Design

The MTX500 had 32 KB of

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 * ...

, the MTX512 had 64KB, and the RS128 had 128KB. Although the Z80A could only address a maximum of 64KB at a time, the MTX and RS128's extra memory, up to a maximum of 768KB, was accessible through the technique of page switching. All models had 24KB of ROM accessible in the first 16KB of address space. The extra 8KB of ROM was available through page switching. The ROM could be switched out entirely, allowing the full 16-bit address space to be used for RAM. The computers featured an all-aluminum case and full-size keyboard with real keys (unlike the

chiclet keyboard A chiclet keyboard or island-style keyboard is a computer keyboard with keys that form an array of small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like erasers or "Chiclets", a brand of chewing gum manufactured in the s ...

used on the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

). In addition to the standard (for the time) BASIC language interpreter (with rudimentary windowing support and LOGO commands support), it included some other software: an

assembler Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of ...

, the ''Panel'' disassembler/debugger and the ''Noddy'' graphic language aimed at children)

Peripherals

This series also featured support for plug-in

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 * ...

cartridges (a little like the

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

). The most popular of these was the ISO

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language from

HiSoft HiSoft Technology International Limited was a multinational information technology and business process outsourcing company headquartered in Dalian, China. Founded in 1996, HiSoft was listed on the NASDAQ public exchange in 2010. In November 2 ...

which was much faster than interpreted BASIC. A considerable addition to any Memotech system was the hugely expensive FDX system which added 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 ...

drives, Winchester

hard disks A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magneti ...

and

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...

2.2 operating system. A Memotech-badged

CGA monitor The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the ''Color/Graphics Adapter'' or ''IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter'', introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a de facto computer display ...

was also made available around the time of the FDX launch.

Specifications

* CPU: Zilog Z80 A @ 4MHz * Video: TM9918 or 9928 (256 x 192 resolution, 16 colors) * Sound: SN76489A (3 voices + pink noise, 6 octaves) * RAM: 32 KB (MTX-500) / 64 to 512 KB (MTX-512) * OS: CP/M

In popular culture

The MTX512 made a minor cinematic appearance in the film '' Weird Science'' as the computer the two lead male characters use to hack into

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

mainframe.Memotech MTX 512
Starring the Computer

References

External links

MTX information and reviews
- some text , content mostly
MTX family at old-computers.com

Review of MTX512
originally from ''

Creative Computing ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format th ...

''
Memotech MTX 512 - The Russian Schools Bid
{{Authority control Early microcomputers Z80-based home computers Home computers Computers designed in the United Kingdom