NEC PC-8001 memory size - 32K or 16K

[1980s_john]

Hello,
According to wikipedia the PC-8001 came with either 16K or 32K of RAM. I've only seen the 32K version (picture of my motherboard attached with 16 RAM chips each 16Kx1 bit on the left). If anyone has a 16K machine please confirm wherever their motherboard is the same or has only 8 RAM sockets.

Thanks,
John

 

[vwestlife]

The original Japanese PC-8001, or the American PC-8001A?

I was surprised to discover that NEC got slapped by the Federal Trade Commission for "unfair and deceptive practices" because they advertised the PC-8001A as having 32K of RAM expandable to 160K, while only a programmer who wrote their own code could access the RAM above 64K, and there were no operating systems available in the U.S. which could:

Federal Trade Commission Decisions

books.google.com

 

[1980s_john]

The original Japanese PC-8001, or the American PC-8001A?

Either please. I was wondering if maybe there were revisions of the motherboard with different RAM sockets, or if 16K machines just had 8 empty DIL sockets.

Regards,
John

 

[alank2]

The original Japanese PC-8001, or the American PC-8001A?

I was surprised to discover that NEC got slapped by the Federal Trade Commission for "unfair and deceptive practices" because they advertised the PC-8001A as having 32K of RAM expandable to 160K, while only a programmer who wrote their own code could access the RAM above 64K, and there were no operating systems available in the U.S. which could:

Federal Trade Commission Decisions

books.google.com

What a world that was; when false advertising and/or claims would be gone after...

 

[1980s_john]

The original Japanese PC-8001, or the American PC-8001A?

I was surprised to discover that NEC got slapped by the Federal Trade Commission for "unfair and deceptive practices" because they advertised the PC-8001A as having 32K of RAM expandable to 160K, while only a programmer who wrote their own code could access the RAM above 64K, and there were no operating systems available in the U.S. which could:

Federal Trade Commission Decisions

books.google.com

I expect NEC were aware of CP/M 3 which supported banked RAM on the Z80, but never developed / released it for the PC-8001. NEC supported paged RAM on the PC-8801MkII and later machines. Other 8-bit PC makers added paged RAM in a variety of ways, eg Acorn supported sideways RAM, HP added an Extended Memory Controller to their Series 80 line etc. All the PC-8012 I/O boxes I have seen on the web only have one 32K RAM card anyway, so I don't think NEC had to pay out much in damages from this ruling.

Regards,
John

 

[vwestlife]

All the PC-8012 I/O boxes I have seen on the web only have one 32K RAM card anyway, so I don't think NEC had to pay out much in damages from this ruling.

They were required to contact everyone who bought an expansion unit and extra RAM board(s) from 1981 to 1984 and offer them a refund. If less than 100 people responded, which is likely as of 1988 when this ruling was made, then each of them would get a $150 refund.

 

[krebizfan]

That does explain all the Ramdisk software supplied with memory cards. The user will have something that can use all the memory that could be installed even if it is not very beneficial.

That does seem like a wonderful ruling for the users that bought a single RAM board. $150 back with a fully operational system.

 

[seat safety switch]

Yeah, is that deal still open? I can probably whack together a RAM board for cheaper than $150 and know where my local NEC office is.

 

[vwestlife]

My dad had a PC-8001A with 64K, but that was via the aftermarket "Wedge" from Renaissance Technology, not NEC's own expansion unit.

 

[seat safety switch]

Although I didn't have time to pull the power supply, it appears on my Japanese PC-8001 (serial J-1032800) that all my RAM sockets are filled. There are a total of 16 socketed ICs.

The left hand column (starting with RAM1 closest to the keyboard end) has NEC DRAMs marked with a yellow paint dot, and the right hand column (with RAM9 closest to the keyboard end) has NEC DRAMs marked with a blue paint dot.

I'm not sure what this colour code indicates, but I would guess the difference in colour means it was upgraded after original purchase by a dealer.

 

[cjs]

I'd not done photos of mine yet, so I took it apart, including pulling off the PSU.

Mine, too, has different RAM chips in bank 0 and bank 1. From the bank 0 date codes, this is a fairly late machine, no earlier than 1982. There are no date codes I can identify on the second bank, unless perhaps the "D" means 1982 (four years after 1979 if 1979 is "A"?). I too have a little blue dot on the chips in the second bank. (I also have a red dot on my sweet still-ceramic! CPU.)

I don't know if this was an upgrade or not, but I would have thought that by 1982 they would be selling only 32K models.