The

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

PC-100 was a Japanese

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

available on October 13, 1983. It operated on

8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allo ...

CPU 7 MHz, 128 KB

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

, 128 KB

VRAM Video random-access memory (VRAM) is dedicated computer memory used to store the pixels and other graphics data as a framebuffer to be rendered on a computer monitor. It often uses a different technology than other computer memory, in order to ...

, a Japanese language capable keyboard and a two-button

mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

. It had three models and its color monitor, ''PC-KD651'', which could either be used vertically or horizontally, had a price tag of ¥198,000. Its biggest advantage over many other computers of its time was its high graphical resolution of 720 x 512 pixels, with a selection of 16 colors out of a total palette of 512 colors on its high end ''model30''. Its OS was

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

and was also equipped with a

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

program ''Maruchipuran'' ( Multiplan) and a text editor '' JS-WORD'' as well as the game

Lode Runner ''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in ...

. The development was operated by NEC Electronic Device Business Group,

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

(

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

dealer in Japan) and Cybernet Kogyo, a subsidiary of

Kyocera is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power genera ...

. Far ahead of its time and too costly, PC-100 did not sell well. A complete set with the printer PC-PR201 that could print alphabet,

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

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

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, 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 and are ...

, came to nearly ¥1 million. For comparison, the Nintendo Family Computer released in July of the same year was only ¥14,800 and the vaunted Apple Lisa 2 sold for ¥2.2 million. The cheaper PC-9801F2 also by NEC outsold it. * model10 (¥398,000) - a 5-inch 2D (360 KB) floppy disk drive * model20 (¥448,000) - two 5-inch 2D floppy disk drives * model30 (¥558,000) - two 5-inch 2D floppy disk drives

Competition with PC-98

NEC phased out the PC-100 due to reorganization of its business units rather than its technical issues. The Electronic Device Business Group launched the

PC-8001 The is a line of personal computers developed for the Japanese market by NEC. The PC-8001 model was also sold in the United States and Canada as the PC-8001A. Original models of the NEC PC-8001B (or sometimes the NEC PC-8000) were also sold in s ...

in 1979, making NEC the biggest PC vendor in Japan. However, the Japanese personal computer industry had just begun, and it was unclear which market would grow. Other large computer manufacturers,

IBM Japan IBM has had business internationally since before the company had a name. Early leaders of the companies that would eventually become IBM (Mr Hollerith, Mr Flint, and Mr Watson) all were involved in doing international business. In those early da ...

and Fujitsu, had not focused on the personal computer industry yet.

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

and Sharp released home computers for hobbyists.

Sord Sord or SORD may refer to: * Swords, Dublin (Irish: Sord), a town in Ireland * Sord Computer Corporation } Sord Computer Corporation is a Japanese electronics company, founded in 1970 by the entrepreneur Takayoshi Shiina. From 1985 until 2018, it ...

and

Oki Electric Industry , commonly referred to as OKI, OKI Electric or the OKI Group, is a Japanese information and communications technology company, headquartered in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo and operating in over 120 countries around the world. OKI produced the f ...

released personal computers for small-business sector. In 1981, NEC expanded personal computer lines into three groups: NEC Home Electronics, Information Processing Business Group and Electronic Device Business Group, with each specializing in a particular series. The Electronic Device Business Group developed the

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 four major Japanes ...

for consumers who wanted to use it for both hobby and business. The Information Processing Business Group began developing the PC-9801 specialized for business market. By 1983, the Japanese personal computer industry grew greatly, and its distribution network became complex. It caused the problem for NEC that each group competed to sell its own product to the same chain. Their biggest competitor was each group in the company, and they contested for the leadership. One software company's president recalled the sales section of PC-9801 often said "Down with the 88!". The PC-100 and PC-9801F were released at the same time, and the problem surfaced. A store manager complained he couldn't determine which salesperson to follow. In December 1983, NEC decided to consolidate

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

business into two divisions: NEC Home Electronics to oversee the

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...

home computer line, and Nippon Electric's Information Processing Business Group to handle the

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...

personal computer line. The Electronic Device Business Group passed off their personal computer business to NEC Home Electronics. NEC Home Electronics discontinued development of the PC-100,

PC-6000 series The PC-6000 series is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced in November 1981 by NEC Home Electronics. There are several models in this series, such as the PC-6001, the PC-6001 MK2 and the PC-6001 MK2 SR. There is also an American version, c ...

, PC-6600 series and PC-8000 series, and these lines were merged into the PC-8800 series to concentrate on the home computer market.

References

External links

パソコンの歴史 1983年
- timeline {{DEFAULTSORT:Nec Pc-100 Pc-0100 8086-based home computers Computer-related introductions in 1983