--- title: Canon CAT categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - Japan years: - '1987' cpus: - Motorola 68000 params: name: CAT image: /media/museum/photos/canon_cat_2.jpg logo: /media/museum/logos/canon_cat_logo.gif company: /companies/canon company_name: Canon specs: - label: NAME value: CAT - label: MANUFACTURER value: Canon - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: Japan - label: YEAR value: '1987' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: Six months later - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Forth - label: KEYBOARD value: 'Monobloc system. Full-stroke keyboard (compatible with IBM Selectric), 49 keys. Special keys: LEAP (left & right), USE FRONT, DOCUMENT/PAGE, PERM SPACE/TAB, UNDO, ERASE, LOCK, SHIFT (x2)' - label: CPU value: Motorola 68000 - label: SPEED value: 5 MHz - label: RAM value: 256 KB - label: ROM value: 256 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: Unknown - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: Unknown - label: COLORS value: Black & white 9'' display - label: SOUND value: Unknown - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 27.18 X 33.78 X 45.21 cm (10.7 X 13.3 X 17.8 inches) / 7.71 kg (17 lbs.) - label: I/O PORTS value: Centronics parallel port, RS-232C serial port (DB-25 connector), 2 x RJ-11 jacks (for telephone connections) - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' floppy disk drive (256 KB) - label: OS value: Machine Specific - label: POWER SUPPLY value: PSU built-in, 120v - label: PRICE value: $1495 (USA, 1987) tabs: - photos - software - links - docs forum_thread: 628 photos: - title: CANON CAT subtitle: '' text: Picture courtesy of M. J. Maloney image: /media/museum/photos/canon_cat_1.jpg - title: CANON CAT subtitle: '' text: '...running word processor program' image: /media/museum/photos/canon_cat_running_1.jpg - title: SIDE subtitle: '' text: Picture courtesy of M. J. Maloney image: /media/museum/photos/canon_cat_side.jpg - title: REAR subtitle: '' text: Picture courtesy of M. J. Maloney image: /media/museum/photos/canon_cat_rear.jpg - title: KEYBOARD subtitle: '' text: Picture courtesy of M. J. Maloney image: /media/museum/photos/canon_cat_keyboard.jpg - title: PRESSE RELEASE subtitle: '' text: Picture of the Canon Cat press release in USA. image: /media/museum/photos/canon_cat_pressrelease_1.jpg screenshots: - title: BUILT-IN WORDPROCESSOR subtitle: '' text: Picture courtesy of M. J. Maloney image: /media/museum/software/canon_cat_ss.jpg links: - title: 'Canon''s Cat Computer: The Real Macintosh' url: http://www.jagshouse.com/swyft.html text: Large article about the Canon Cat - title: DigiBarn Museum - Canon Cat page url: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/canon-cat/page_01.htm text: Numerous photos of the beast (with some links) - title: Forever70...80...90 url: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fabrice.montupet/autrever.htm text: fabrice has set up a very informative page about the Canon CAT (french) - title: Jef raskin's home page url: http://jef.raskincenter.org/home/index.html text: Home page of the creator of the CAT - title: Wikipedia - Canon Cat entry url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat text: Nice page from Wikipedia docs: - title: INSTRUCTION MANUAL url: http://web.archive.org/web/20070928072205/jef.raskincenter.org/published/cat_manual.html cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/canon_cat_instruction-manual.jpg text: |- [**INSTRUCTION MANUAL**](http://web.archive.org/web/20070928072205/jef.raskincenter.org/published/cat_manual.html)written by Jef Raskin  compiled/archived by Jef Raskin\  type of document : PDF\  source : [JefRaskin.com](http://web.archive.org/web/20070928072205/jef.raskincenter.org/) - title: REFERENCE GUIDE url: http://web.archive.org/web/20070928072639/jef.raskincenter.org/published/cat_ref.html cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/canon_cat_reference-guide.jpg text: |- [**REFERENCE GUIDE**](http://web.archive.org/web/20070928072639/jef.raskincenter.org/published/cat_ref.html)written by Jef Raskin  compiled/archived by Jef Raskin\  type of document : PDF\  source : [JefRaskin.com](http://web.archive.org/web/20070928072639/jef.raskincenter.org/) **... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :** - title: REFERENCE CARD url: http://web.archive.org/web/20070806230147/jef.raskincenter.org/published/cat_card.html cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/canon_cat_reference-card.jpg text: |- [**REFERENCE CARD**](http://web.archive.org/web/20070806230147/jef.raskincenter.org/published/cat_card.html)written by Jef Raskin  compiled/archived by Jef Raskin\  type of document : PDF\  source : [JefRaskin.com](http://web.archive.org/web/20070806230147/jef.raskincenter.org/) **... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :** oc_id: 642 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608161648/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=642 date: '2023-06-08' --- In 1987 Canon USA Inc. released a new computer named the Canon Cat. This computer was targeted at low-level clerical workers such as secretaries. After six months on the market and with 20,000 units sold, Canon discontinued the Cat. The Cat featured an innovative text based user interface that did not rely upon a mouse, icons, or graphics. The key person behind the Cat was Jef Raskin, an eclectic gadgeteer, who began the design of the Cat during his work on the first Macintosh project at Apple Computer in 1979. The Cat was a 17 pound desktop computer system containing a built in 9" black-and-white bit-mapped monitor, a single 3.5-inch 256K floppy disk drive, and an IBM Selectric-style keyboard. It came with an extensive collection of applications stored in ROM. These applications supported word processing, spell checking, mail merging, calculator functions, communications, data retrieval, and programming in the FORTH or 68000 assembly languages. Also present in the ROM was a spelling dictionary based on the 90,000 word American Heritage Dictionary. System setup information and a small personal user dictionary were stored in 8K of battery backed up RAM. The Cat's user interface made this computer unique. The user interface was based on a simple text editor in which all data was seen as a long stream of text broken into pages. Special keyboard keys allowed the user to invoke various functions. An extra key titled "Use Front" acted as a control key. You pressed Use Front and then a special key to activate a specific feature. For example, the L key was marked Disk, the J key was marked Print, and the N key was marked Explain (Cat's context sensitive help facility). Other commands existed to let you change the system's various parameters (Setup key) and reverse your last action (Undo key). Contributors: David Patterson (editor), John J. Diamond (editor)