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---
title: Kaypro 10
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Transportable
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- Z80A
params:
name: Kaypro 10
image: /media/museum/photos/kaypro_10_system_1.jpg
company: /companies/kaypro
company_name: Kaypro
specs:
- label: NAME
value: Kaypro 10
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Kaypro
- label: TYPE
value: Transportable
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: '1983'
- label: KEYBOARD
value: Detachable, 72 key typewriter style keyboard with 18 programmable keys.
- label: CPU
value: Z80A
- label: SPEED
value: 4 MHz
- label: RAM
value: 64 KB
- label: VRAM
value: 4 KB
- label: ROM
value: 2 KB
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 80 x 25
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: 160 x 100
- label: COLORS
value: built-in 9'' non-glare green phosphor screen
- label: SOUND
value: Unknown
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: 450 x 200 x 385 mm / 12.5 Kg
- label: I/O PORTS
value: One Centronics-type parallel port, two RS232C serial ports
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: One 5.25'' floppy disk drive (double-density, double sided, 390 KB) + optional 10 MB hard-disk
- label: OS
value: CP/M, ZCPR (enhanced CP/M)
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: Built-in PSU
- label: PRICE
value: $2795
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- links
- docs
photos:
- title: KAYPRO 10
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/kaypro_10_system_2.jpg
- title: KAYPRO 10
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/kaypro_k10_4.jpg
- title: BACK
subtitle: ''
text: |-
From left to right :\
\- on/off switch (black) and fuse,\
\- Reset button (red),\
\- Parallel printer output,\
\- Serial printer output,\
\- Modem,\
\- Contrast knob.
image: /media/museum/photos/kaypro_k10_back_1.jpg
- title: D. A. KAY
subtitle: ''
text: The "father" of the Kaypros, is proud of this Kaypro 10.
image: /media/museum/photos/kaypro_da-kay.jpg
adverts:
- title: 84'S PARIS-DAKAR RACE
subtitle: ''
text: |-
A KAYPRO IV IN ACTION SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA
8 Kaypro IV and 2 Kaypro 10 were used by the doctors of the Paris-Dakar race 84's edition. The Kaypro IVs were used to store medical information about the 1000 participants. Power was provided by the Mercedes cars through the 12v cigarette lighters. The Kaypro 10s were kept in the "communication" plane during the day, and were used to centralize all the informations in the evening. At the end of the race, and after 12000 km of tracks, there were all running fine ! One of the Kaypro 10 is said to have been thrown out of the plane, mistaken with a common metallic tool box... And it still worked !
image: /media/museum/pubs/kaypro_paris-dakar_2.jpg
- title: FRENCH ADVERT (1984)
subtitle: ''
text: |-
"Kaypro, it runs" !
"Kaypro, the computer which can be carried away"
"Elected Transportable Computer of the year"
image: /media/museum/pubs/kaypro_pub_camarche.gif
links:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
docs:
- title: KAYPRO TECHNICAL MANUAL
url: null
cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/kaypro_technical_manual.jpg
text: |-
**KAYPRO TECHNICAL MANUAL**\
written by Kaypro
 compiled/archived by Unknown\
 type of document : Online reader
**... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :**
comments:
- author: Adam Vaughn (United States)
date: Wednesday 8th June 2016
text: I recently acquired a Kaypro 10. It''s been equipped with a SWP "Co-Power 88" board which allows it to run some MS-DOS software (and doubles as a RAMdisk in CP/M). The internal HD was a bit cranky at first, but eventually managed to spin up. Very solid machine!
- author: Q Madp (Portland, OR)
date: Monday 14th September 2015
text: I still have a Kaypro 10 sitting here and fire it up once in a while. Even have an early laptop with a solid state drive in it and it was mainly used to dial into telco systems. Would attach photo if I could.
- author: Jane Rubin (formerly Jane Davis)
date: Saturday 7th February 2015
text: I should have said that at the time I wrote the original ProStar Training Guide my name was Jane Davis. I just checked on Amazon and it is still listed!
- author: Jane Rubin (Penybontfawr, Wales UK)
date: Saturday 7th February 2015
text: Back in 1984 I was commissioned by Kaypro to write a manual to accompany their new software package by MicroPro International - WordStar, MailMerge, DataStar, ReportStar, CalcStar and the supreme data sorting program, SuperSort. I had already written a general manual covering all the programs in the software bundle so they shipped a Kaypro 10 to me so I could produce a customised version - needless to say it was love at first touch! Such a great little machine even if the games were of the Little Brick-out vintage! Later I was given the Kaypro 16 DOS machine and updated the manual for that - and then finally the 286i which was a multi-user MP/M machine. I was allowed to keep all of these models. Later I gave away the 16 and the 286i - but I still have my beloved Kaypro 10 (and the "I love my Kaypro" banner) and check it from time to time - it is still working after all these years.
- author: David L Kutzler (United States)
date: Friday 8th November 2013
text: |-
The Kaypro 10 was my second computer. I recall at the time thinking how no one could possibly use 10 megabytes of storage. I knew the location and purpose of every single file on the computer.
Now, I have single files that are orders of magnitude larger than 10 megabytes and I haven''t got a clue what 90$ of the files on my computer do.
It''s the same thing with modern cars. When I grew up in the 50s and 60s, I could open the hood of any car, identify every part and repair a lot of them. Now, I look under the hood and don''t have a clue.
- author: BryanBE (ISA)
date: Friday 19th July 2013
text: |-
Anyone selling a Kaypro 10? In Working condition. Email me:
vt_hotlatin-@-hotmail.com
- author: Bond Shands (Palm Springs, California)
date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
text: |-
The Kaypro 10 was my second computer. It was purchased in 1984 and used for the KAY\*FOG RBBS (Remote Bulletin Board System) out of my home in San Francisco. KAY\*FOG had a dedicated phone line and automatically answered dial-up calls via its 1200 bps (later 2400 bps) modem. In those days before the Internet computers were able to communicate over phone lines using modems and Bulletin Boards were places where messages could be posted, text information read and files downloaded.
KAY\*FOG was operated for the benefit of novice users and callers would post questions about using CP/M (the operating system), WordStar (a popular word processing program), BASIC, dBase II and other programs. I or another would post messages in response as answers. My friends Nina Smith and Dick Ezzard would call the BBS each evening, check the questions posted, and provide many of the answers.
KAY\*FOG was online for exactly five (5) years and I signed off in August 1989. By then I had built my first DOS machine and had moved on to the MS-DOS world of personal commuters.
- author: Chris Van Dyk (Bainbridge Island, Washington)
date: Friday 3rd February 2012
text: I bought a KayPro10 on the advice of my brother, Michael, who advised that CP/M was a known system and KayPro was the best, and MSDOS might fail. He was right. I never could figure out MSDOS and the KayPro is still in the garage$ the file system was delightfully simple. I ran the computer non-stop for a couple years after I opened the box, on political campaigns in Washington and Alaska. After a few years, added a board that gave it DOS capability. Only moved on to lesser machines after about 10 years of use. This was the Model T of microcomputers. Takes about a half hour now to warm up, but still works. Control P still prints....
- author: A. Trent Phillips (USA)
date: Saturday 25th September 2010
text: The option of running Microsoft DOS was possible with the addition of an 8088 CPU board. The original Z-80 and add-on 8088 could not work together, but the machine could be booted up to either run CP/M off the Z-80 or MS-DOS off the 8088. The Apple II line could do the same thing- there was a Z-80 add on for that platform. I wonder if anyone has tried to run CP/M-86 (CP/M for the 8088/8086 CPUs) on one of these.
- author: Pauline Thompson (Santa Barbara, California)
date: Wednesday 17th January 2007
text: 'In 1983 I bought my first computer, a Kaypro 10, and used it to write a book, "Santa Barbara: How To Discover America''s Eden". I''m writing this note on a Toshiba 15" laptop and marvel how I ever wrote all those pages on that tiny screen! Like Pete Sonon, I used a Juki 6100 Daisywheel for printing the manuscript and it''s still stored in my office but the Kaypro is gone.'
- author: Pete Sonon (USA)
date: Thursday 2nd November 2006
text: I bought mine as a "bundle" with a "Kaypro" printer, that was actually a Juki daisywheel. Like some of the others, I've still got my Kaypro. They were just too good to throw away. Like the old Timex ads, they could take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. The Juki printer is long gone...
- author: MAL GREENFIELD ( )
date: Wednesday 18th February 2004
text: |-
I, too, was a proud owner of a Kaypro 10. Ran my law office from it. My friend owned a pharmacy and ran his business, including his inventory, on a 10.\
My favorite pastime was playing the game "ADVENTURE" which, if memory serves me, was loaded on drive 7. I NEVER got above 180 or so points and NEVER found my way out of the Ice Room. Does anyone besides me recall this game and, if so, is there anyway to get a copy to download onto my Windows ME Gateway?\
Thank you\
Mal
- author: Tom Morgan (Sacramento CA)
date: Friday 18th July 2003
text: Sorry I can't help anyone who owns a Kaypro 10 because I gave mine away to a friend in 1993. I worked for a company who used the Kaypro 10's in conjunction with a postal scale we built for UPS manifest systems. We were 1 of only 3 companies with a UPS approved manifest system. Were working on a system for the Post Office when the cash cow died.
- author: Alberto L. Nájera (Spain)
date: Monday 10th March 2003
text: |-
It was 1992, the first Persic Gulf War was going to star. I found a Kaypro 10 at home. It could run a word processor and dBase.\
Last weekend I found it again, I swiched it on, I heard the music of its fans... Amazing!...
- author: Ted Kalli (Earth)
date: Thursday 20th February 2003
text: I still have my Kaypro 10 and every once in a while I take it out, plug it in and watch it boot. For the time, I think it was a great computer and used it for many years.
- author: Carl Petersen (Arkansas)
date: Monday 10th February 2003
text: I still remember fondly the hours I spent with my Kaypro 10 and then Kaypro Hi Tech K20. I thought CPM was here to stay. They had to drag me away to go to MSDOS. I lost mine to a repair tech who I asked to look at and he stripped them. Still have boxes of disks. Loads of shareware for them. Just haven't been able to throw away.
- author: Alan Hoppe (Earth)
date: Sunday 5th January 2003
text: It was an excellent design for it's time! It was also extremely durable. It travelled around the world 4 times with me in 84 to 86. It even survived a strip search (the computer - not me) at the airport in Turkey. I still have it, and I won't part with it for anything. Please note in the photo that the striping on the keyboard has been worn off. Thats how much these babies were used! BTW, the screen rotation problem can be fixed...
- author: Chris Pagan (Earth)
date: Monday 12th August 2002
text: I came across a KP10 a couple of years ago and before I got rid of it I opened it up and noticed that it had two 5mb HDD's in it, not just one 10mb drive...
- author: Corinne Loughman (Earth)
date: Saturday 27th April 2002
text: I worked for a Newspaper in 1984 as a Cobol Programmer. When they purchased the Kaypro 10, I jumped at the chance to learn/use it. We ran CPM/86 and Dbase II with HP Plotting language and programmed all of the production graphics programs with it. It sent all output to the plotter. It wa s an incredible little PC that hard a 10MB Hard drive we thought we could never fill-up!
- author: J. Michael Butler (USA)
date: Friday 5th April 2002
text: I was working for an office machines place in Arkansas during this time period and owned a Kaypro 10. I'm not sure I have ever had a box before or since that was more reliable. It was faster than my first 2 or 3 DOS computers! It was about this time I asked a guru what he thought of that IBM PC thing that had only been out a short time. He said the only bad thing was that every computer co. in the world immediately said - "Hey, we've got to build one JUST LIKE THEIRS!" It put innovation at a standstill. Kaypro followed suit with a DOS machine shortly after they came out with the Model 10. Everything went downhill from there...
- author: Eduard von Saher (World)
date: Wednesday 27th February 2002
text: |-
A big advantage of the Kaypro design was that you could sit on it! This can be quite useful on commuter trains were all seats are occupied.\
Try that with todays portables!
related:
- /museum/kaypro-1
- /museum/kaypro-2x
- /museum/kaypro-4
- /museum/kaypro-ii
- /museum/kaypro-iv
- /museum/kaypro-robie
oc_id: 148
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230413211536/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=148
date: '2023-04-13'
---
The Kaypro 10 was a well known CP/M computer. It is one of the last portable under CP/M. Non Linear Systems had already changed their name to Kaypro when this PC shipped. The company changed its name in 82 and the K10 came out in 83.
There were two versions, including one with a real-time clock (National MM58167 chip) and a built-in modem (300 baud, Belle System 103 compatibility, uses Texas Instruments TMS-99531/TMS-99532).
The Kaypro 10 was supplied with a lot of great programs: CP/M 80, the Perfect software suite (Perfect Writer, Perfect Calc, Perfect Filer), WordStar (word processor), dBase II (database), Superterm (terminal emulator) and two BASICs (Microsoft's BASIC and SBASIC, which was a compiler version written by Gilbert, the head of Kaypro's software engineering.).
The great success of the Kaypro 10 led "Non Linear Systems" to change their name officially to Kaypro in 1982. The Non-Linear part continued making test equipment.
---
**Igor Pronin** reports :\
As a proud owner of K10 I have to back Rick Barlett: it was good design and the price was right. I paid about 20000 FIM (roughly 6500 USD then, which was about my 2 months salary as a software programmer) when I bought one (with 10 MegaByte hard disk) back in 1983. It still is in my garage.
**Darrell Pittman** reports :\
It was the first luggable that had a built-in, shock-mounted hard disk. I once read a story about a guy who took one out to an oil-drilling site, left it on the ground and a pickup truck ran over it, and it still ran!
DOS versions by **Gene Crick**:\
Although the Kaypro II was a CPM machine, at least some Kaypro 10s ran DOS. I know as I have two of them. Was there a midstream change from CPM to DOS?