The Sord M5 is a

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 ...

launched by Sord Computer Corporation in 1982. Primarily the Sord M5 competed in the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese home computer market. It was also sold as the CGL M5 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

by Computer Games Limited and was reasonably popular in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, where the M5 stood as one of the first affordable computers available to the general public.

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

also sold models in Japan as the Game M5, and models were also exported to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Original models of the Sord M5 are relatively small by home computing standards, with a built-in keyboard with rubber keys, similar to the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

, which is also sold in many countries such as the

itself,

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the 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 ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

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and

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as the Sord M5 Creative Computer, which included a carrying case for the computer. The specifications of the computer are very similar to the

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 ...

, a computer that likely forced the Sord M5 (along with many similar Japanese computers) out of the market by the mid-1980s. The CGL M5 was released in the UK with an introductory price of £195, higher than many of the system's competitors including the ZX Spectrum, and VIC-20. Whereas the M5 contained a cartridge slot in an age where most computers were using

compact cassette The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company ...

s or

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a 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 with a ...

s, the small amount of built-in RAM led to few games being produced for the system. In South Korea, three electronics companies released different personal computers based on Sord M5. The FC-150 was produced and released by LG,

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

released the SPC-500, and the TommyCom was manufactured and launched by Koryo Systems. These computers supported the Korean alphabet,

Hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

. The system specifications of these computers were identical to the original M5, but they had differently shaped cartridge slots. Cartridges from the Sord M5 or other manufacturers could not be used for these computers directly. LG released some original software including several educational programs and games. Despite its short production run, the M5 was supported by various big Japanese game developers such as

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

and

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

. Other models include the M5 Pro and M5 Jr.

Technical specifications

Internal hardware

* CPU:

Zilog Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit computing, 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 Backward compatibility, software-compatible with the ...

, 3.58 MHz * Video Hardware: TMS9918 ** 40×24 text (6×8 characters), 224 user defined characters ** 256×192 graphics, 16 colours ** 32 hardware sprites (up to 16×16 pixels) * Sound Hardware: SN76489 ** 3 sound channels ** 1 noise channel ** 6 octaves, 15 amplitude levels * RAM: 4 KB RAM, 16 KB VRAM * ROM: 8 KB expandable to 16KB

I/O ports and power supply

*I/O ports: ** TV out ** Video out (phono socket) ** Sound out (phono socket) **

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 divisio ...

16-pin interface ** 8-pin DIN cassette connector * Power supply: external

Language cartridge options

* BASIC-I ** Integer arithmetic only (16 bit signed) * BASIC-G ** Graphics and sound functions * BASIC-F ** Floating point arithmetic * FALC ** Applications package

Retail price

* UK Retail prices, December 1983 ** Sord M5 plus BASIC-I : £190 ** BASIC-G : £35 ** BASIC-F : £35 ** FALC: £35

Software

There are 42 known games for Sord M5Seesaawiki
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References

External links

More M5 images including circuit board

Sord M5 at old-computers.com
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209022938/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=217 , date=2007-12-09 M5 Z80-based home computers Home computers Computer-related introductions in 1982