The Philips P2000T

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 ...

was

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

' first real entry in the home computer market in 1980, after the Philips Videopac G7000 game system (better known in North America as the Magnavox Odyssey2) which they already sold to compete with the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

and similar game systems. There was also a P2000M version with an additional 80-column text card for use with a

monochrome monitor A monochrome monitor is a type of computer monitor in which computer text and images are displayed in varying tones of only one color, as opposed to a color monitor that can display text and images in multiple colors. They were very common in t ...

. This version shipped with a monitor cabinet also housing a dual 5¼-inch floppy disk drive. The P2000C version, introduced in 1982, was portable. The P2000 systems can be emulated with the

MESS The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

software, and since 2015 they are part of

MAME MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to emulate the hardware of arcade games, video game consoles, old computers and other systems in software on modern personal computers and ...

. Other emulators also exist.

P2000T

The P2000T was a

Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be software-compatible with the Intel 8080, offering a compelling altern ...

-based home computer that used a

Mullard SAA5050 The Mullard SAA5050 was a text mode#Technical basis, character generator chip for implementing the Teletext character set. The SAA5050 was used in teletext-equipped television sets, viewdata terminals, and microcomputers, most notably on computers ...

teletext Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipped television sets. Teletext sends data in the broadcast signal, hidden in the invisible vertical blanking interval area at the to ...

display chip to produce the video picture and a small Mini-Cassette

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

for 42 kilobytes of mass storage capacity. The Mini-Cassette was treated as a floppy drive from the user's perspective, using the automatic search for a program (CLOAD command) or free space (CSAVE). A command to display the directory of the cassette was also implemented. Philips used components they already produced for other markets (

television set A television set or television receiver (more commonly called TV, TV set, television, telly, or tele) is an electronic device for viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or as a computer monitor. It combines a tuner, display, and loudspeake ...

s and

dictation machine A dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record Speech communication, speech for playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorder. The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark of the ...

s) to quickly design a small computer system. It was partially designed by professor Dieter Hammer. Philips used the

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 * ...

cartridge system from their Videopac G7000 game system. One of these cartridges contained

Microsoft BASIC Microsoft BASIC is the foundation software product of the Microsoft company and evolved into a line of BASIC interpreters and compiler(s) adapted for many different microcomputers. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first v ...

. Although the teletext video chip permitted a quick entry into the home computer market, it was a major weakness of the P2000T. Using the teletext standard allowed it to support eight colors and rudimentary

semigraphics Text-based semigraphics, pseudographics, or character graphics is a primitive method used in early text mode video hardware to emulate raster graphics without having to implement the logic for such a display mode. There are two different ways ...

, but unlike later entries in the home computer market which also supported a teletext display (such as the

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

and

Oric Atmos Oric was a brand of home computers sold in the 1980s by Tangerine Computer Systems. Tangerine was based in the United Kingdom and sold their computers primarily in Europe. All computers in the Oric line were based on the MOS Technology 650 ...

), the P2000T did not also have a

high resolution Image resolution is the level of detail of an image. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail. Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies ...

mode. Consequently few games were developed for the P2000T. As a result, the P2000T had only limited success, and Philips later replaced it with their

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...

machines. The machine did gain popularity in

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, especially in the areas of science, education, and data communications (

videotex Videotex (or interactive videotex) was one of the earliest implementations of an end-user information system. From the late 1970s to early 2010s, it was used to deliver information (usually pages of text) to a user in computer-like format, typi ...

). Initially, in 1981, the computer cost 3000

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

s (€2725 in 2015's money). In 1984 the price was lowered to 1200 guilders (€967 in 2015's money). iisg.nl. Accessed 2 December 2016.

P2000M

The P2000M incorporated two 5¼-inch floppy disk drives, besides a built-in monochrome screen. It could run

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/Intel 8085, 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Dig ...

or Microsoft

BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

applications, depending on the cartridge used. It was incompatible with the P2000T due to the way it handled display of special characters (color, "graphics mode"), which made most P2000T games unplayable.

References

External links

P2000 architecture
{{Philips P2000 Z80-based home computers Home computers Computer-related introductions in 1980