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Matra Alice
The Matra & Hachette Ordinateur Alice is a home computer sold in France beginning in 1983. It was a clone of the TRS-80 MC-10, produced through a collaboration between Matra and Hachette in France and Tandy Corporation in the United States. The Alice is distinguished by its bright red casing. Functionally, it is equivalent to the MC-10, with a Péritel (SCART) connector replacing the RF modulator for video output. The Alice never became a popular computer in its home country. It tried to invade schools by being part of the country's '' Plan Informatique pour Tous'' ("Information technology for everyone") programme, but Thomson won the whole deal. Fewer than 50 games were released for the system. The original model had 4 KB of RAM and used a Motorola 6847 video display generator chip, as used in the Dragon 32 and Acorn Atom among others. At least three emulators for the system exist. Specifications The machine is similar to the TRS-80 MC-10, with the following specif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and the one megabyte address range are unchanged, however. In fact, according to the Intel documentation, the 8086 and 8088 have the same execution unit (EU)—only the bus interface unit (BIU) is different. The 8088 was used in the original IBM PC and in IBM PC compatible clones. History and description The 8088 was designed at Intel's laboratory in Haifa, Israel, as were a large number of Intel's processors. The 8088 was targeted at economical systems by allowing the use of an eight-bit data path and eight-bit support and peripheral chips; complex circuit boards were still fairly cumbersome and expensive when it was released. The prefetch queue of the 8088 was shortened to four bytes, from the 8086's six bytes, and the prefe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assembly Language
In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture's machine code instructions. Assembly language usually has one statement per machine instruction (1:1), but constants, comments, assembler directives, symbolic labels of, e.g., memory locations, registers, and macros are generally also supported. The first assembly code in which a language is used to represent machine code instructions is found in Kathleen and Andrew Donald Booth's 1947 work, ''Coding for A.R.C.''. Assembly code is converted into executable machine code by a utility program referred to as an '' assembler''. The term "assembler" is generally attributed to Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill in their 1951 book '' The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Dig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Read-only Memory
Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing software that is rarely changed during the life of the system, also known as firmware. Software applications, such as video games, for programmable devices can be distributed as ROM cartridge, plug-in cartridges containing ROM. Strictly speaking, ''read-only memory'' refers to hard-wired memory, such as diode matrix or a #Solid-state ROM, mask ROM integrated circuit (IC), that cannot be electronically changed after manufacture. Although discrete circuits can be altered in principle, through the addition of Jump wire, bodge wires and the removal or replacement of components, ICs cannot. Correction of errors, or updates to the software, require new devices to be manufactured and to replace the installed device. Floating-gate ROM semiconductor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomson EF9345
The EF9345 from SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, Inc., was a semigraphic single chip microprocessor for video image control, encapsulated in a 40-pin DIP and used primarily in the Matra Alice 32, Matra Alice 90 and Philips VG5000 microcomputers. It was also the video processor of the Minitel 1b terminals, built by either Alcatel and Philips at more than 2 million of units. The EF9345 was capable of displaying 8 colors ( RGB primaries), 128 alphanumeric characters and 128 semigraphic characters. It had one semigraphic mode and 40- and 80-column text modes. It was able to address up to 16KB of dedicated video RAM. Video Modes * 50/60Hz output ** Interlaced or progressive scan *Semigraphics: ** 128 standard character set with 5×7 pixel font dimensions. User definable 8×10 pixel alphanumeric or semigraphic sets. *40 characters × 25 rows text mode (similar to teletext): ** 8 × 10 pixel font ** Selectable background and foreground colors ** Styles: double height, double width, blin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matra Alice All
Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a major French industrial conglomerate. Its business activities covered a wide range of industries, notably aerospace, defence, automotive, motorsports, transport and telecommunications. Following the acquisition of vehicle manufacturer Automobiles René Bonnet, the company founded Matra Automobiles during the 1960s, which produced a limited range of racing and sports cars. Its car division worked closely with other vehicle manufacturers, most significantly Renault, prior to the decline and sale of Matra Automobiles during the early 2000s. In addition to road cars, Matra entered into a wide range of businesses, eventually diversifying into media, weaponry, aeronautics, automobiles, and music distribution. Matra was at one point owned by the Floirat family. Throughout much of the company's existence, French businessman Jean-Luc Lagardère was the CEO of Matra. In 1988, Matra was privatised; Lagardère's stake in the compa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AZERTY
AZERTY ( ) is a specific layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of alphabetical keys; that is, ( ). Like other European keyboard layouts, it is modelled on the English-language QWERTY layout. It is used in France and Belgium, though both countries have their own national variation on the layout. The competing layouts devised for French (e.g. the 1907 ZHJAY layout, Claude Marsan's 1976 layout, the 2002 Dvorak-fr, and the 2005 BÉPO layout) have obtained only limited recognition, although the latter has been included in the 2019 French keyboard layout standard. History The AZERTY layout appeared in France in the last decade of the 19th century as a variation on American QWERTY typewriters. Its exact origin is unknown. It was more successful than its contemporaries (e.g. the French ZHJAYS layout created by Albert Navarre in the early 20th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kilobytes
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix '' kilo'' as a multiplication factor of 1000 (103); therefore, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quantities and Units – Part 13: Information science and technology, International Electrotechnical Commission (2008). The internationally recommended unit symbol for the kilobyte is kB. In some areas of information technology, particularly in reference to random-access memory capacity, ''kilobyte'' instead often refers to 1024 (210) bytes. This arises from the prevalence of sizes that are powers of two in modern digital memory architectures, coupled with the coincidence that 210 differs from 103 by less than 2.5%. The kibibyte is defined as 1024 bytes, avoiding the ambiguity issues of the ''kilobyte''.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quantities and Units – Part 13: Information science and technology, Internatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn Atom
The Acorn Atom is a home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd from 1980 to 1982, when it was replaced by the BBC Micro. The BBC Micro began life as an upgrade to the Atom, originally known as the Proton. The Atom was a progression of the MOS Technology 6502-based machines that the company had been making from 1979. The Atom was a cut-down Acorn System 3 without a disk drive but with an integral keyboard and cassette tape interface, sold in either kit or complete form. In 1980 it was priced between £120 in kit form, £170 () ready assembled, to over £200 for the fully expanded version with 12 KB of RAM and the floating-point extension ROM. Hardware The minimum Atom had 2 KB of RAM and 8 KB of ROM, with the maximum specification machine having 12 KB of each. An additional floating-point ROM was also available. The 2 KB of RAM was divided between 1 KB of Block Zero RAM (including the 256 bytes of " zero page") and 512 bytes for the screen ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragon 32
The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are 8-bit 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 moving to Port Talbot, Wales (until 1984), and by Eurohard S.A. in Casar de Cáceres, Spain (from 1984 to 1987), and for the US market by Tano Corporation of New Orleans, Louisiana. The model numbers reflect the primary difference between the two machines, which have 32 and 64 kilobytes of RAM, respectively. Dragon Data introduced the Dragon 32 microcomputer in August 1982, followed by the Dragon 64 a year later. Despite initial success, the Dragon faced technical limitations in graphics capabilities and hardware-supported text modes, which restricted its appeal in the gaming and educational markets. Dragon Data collapsed in 1984 and was acquired by Spanish company Eurohard S.A. However, Eurohard filed for bankruptcy in 1987. The Dragon co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomson Computers
In the 1980s the France, French Thomson SA, Thomson company produced a range of 8-bit computers based on the Motorola 6809, 6809E CPU. They were released in several variations (mostly concerning the keyboard or color of the casing) covering the MO and TO series from late 1982 to 1989. While MO and TO models are incompatible in software, most of the peripherals and hardware were compatible. These machines were common in France due to the 1980s governmental educational program ''Computing for All, Computing for All (Informatique pour Tous)''.'''' Around 100,000 Thomson MO5, MO5 and Thomson TO7/70, TO7/70 computers were ordered and installed in schools. Export attempts to Germany, Italy, Algeria, USSR, India, Argentina and Spain were unsuccessful. It is reported that there were 450,000 Thomson computers in France in 1986. By 1988 Thomson had only sold 60,000 of the predicted 150,000 computers, abandoning computer development the following year. About 84 games were released for the TO ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
