--- title: Epson HC / HX-20 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - Japan years: - '1982' cpus: - Two Hitachi 6301 params: name: HC / HX-20 image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_system_s1.jpg company: /companies/epson company_name: Epson specs: - label: NAME value: HC / HX-20 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Epson - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: Japan - label: YEAR value: June 1982 - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Microsoft BASIC interpreter - label: KEYBOARD value: Full stroke 68 key with 13 function keys - label: CPU value: Two Hitachi 6301 - label: SPEED value: 0.614 MHz - label: RAM value: 16 KB (up to 32 KB) - label: ROM value: 32 KB (up to 64 KB) - label: TEXT MODES value: 4 lines of 20 characters (in a window of 255 x 255 characters) - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 120 x 32 dots - label: COLORS value: Monochrome LCD - label: SOUND value: Beeper - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 29 (W) x 21.5 (D) x 4.4 (H) cm / 1.7 kg - label: I/O PORTS value: RAM extension port, RS232 (for printer), Serial, Bar code. - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: Small analog 1300 baud microcassette drive (optional) - label: POWER SUPPLY value: 4 AA Ni-Cd batteries or AC adapter - label: PERIPHERALS value: up to 4 3.5'' floppy disc units, display controller, acoustic coupler - label: PRICE value: |- £480\ 2990 FF (France, january 1988) tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - connectors - emulators - links - docs - videos photos: - title: CREAM AND SILVER VERSIONS subtitle: '' text: Apart from the case colour and the keyboard adapted for each country (here German "QWERTZ" and French "AZERTY" versions), technical features were identical. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_greybeige_s1.jpg - title: CREAM VERSION subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_systembeige_s1.jpg - title: SILVER VERSION subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_systemsilver_s1.jpg - title: LEFT & RIGHT SIDES subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Memory expansion connector\ **(2)** Power switch\ **(3)** LCD contrast adjustment\ **(4)** External tape recorder jacks (Mic, Ear, Rem)\ **(5)** Light pen jack\ **(6)** Cassette eject button\ **(7)** Reset switch image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_bothsides_s1.jpg - title: MICRO CASSETTE DRIVE subtitle: '' text: This tape-recorder uses micro-cassettes and has a smart and programmable management of the indexed files (fast advance and rewind, automatic search for a specific file on the tape). The recording reliability is excellent. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_cassettedrive_s1.jpg - title: PRINTER subtitle: '' text: |- Epson was a great printer specialist. The one used in the HX-20 can print 24 characters per line on a normal paper roll (5 cm wide).\ It was one of the first (if not the first) miniaturized dot-matrix printer. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_printer_s1.jpg - title: REAR CONNECTORS subtitle: '' text: |- From left to right:\ • The left lever allows to replace the cassette drive vith a ROM memory expansion unit\ • External 6V - 600 mA AC adaptor jack \[+ (• -\]\ • RS-232C printer DIN socket\ • Serial DIN socket image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_rearconnectors_s1.jpg - title: BOTTOM SIDE subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Empty socket for additional ROM software\ **(2)** BIOS and Microsoft BASIC ROMs\ **(3)** 8 KB RAM bank - 4 2K\*8 6117 static RAM chips. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_backside_s1.jpg - title: HC-20 WITH EXPANSION UNIT subtitle: '' text: This expansion unit holds 128 KB of RAM used as a virtual floppy disk drive. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hc20_with-expansion-unit.jpg - title: OPENED subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Lever allowing cassette drive replacement\ **(2)** LCD display card with its specialized chips\ **(3)** Printer location\ **(4)** Keyboard card\ **(5)** The components side of the main board faces the bottom of the case\ **(6)** Ni-Cd battery image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_opened_s1.jpg - title: MAINBOARD subtitle: '' text: |- Strangely, the HX-20 does not use miniaturized or specialized circuits. The secret of the system compactness relies on space optimization and serious design study. On this picture, the motherboard has been turned upside down for a better visibility, since the components normaly face the bottom of the case. **(1)** First bank of 8 KB RAM chips (4 x 6117)\ **(2)** Second bank of 8 KB RAM chips\ **(3)** Dual Hitachi 6301 processor. An evolution of the Motorola 6800\ **(4)** Motorola MC146818 real time clock circuit\ **(5)** Logical circuits in charge of inputs / outputs.\ **(6)** ROM bank holding the Microsoft BASIC interpreter. The empty socket can receive additional ROM software. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_mainboard_s1.jpg - title: PLASTIC SUITCASE subtitle: '' text: The HX-20 in its plastic suitcase, along with cassette tapes, spare ribons and paper roller for the printer. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_incase_s1.jpg - title: 'SUITCASE #2' subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_suitcase_s1.jpg - title: VOICE SYNTHESIZER subtitle: '' text: |- This customized version offered a text-to-speech synthesis. User typed phrases, words, letters, numbers and they was spoken back in a male or female voice.\ This Real Voice system also had 7 row by 16 column LED array in the lid that was used for input. It looks like it had an emitter and detector pair for each position. image: /media/museum/photos/epson_hx20_voicesynt_1.jpg adverts: - title: 3 PAGE U.S. ADVERT subtitle: '' text: |- First HX-20 U.S. advert (september 1982) Advert said: The size, of course, is a dead giveaway. But don't let the size fool you. The HX-20 is not a toy. Or a glorified calculator.\ It's a computer.\ A real computer with 16K RAM\ ...\ Surprised that a computer like the HX-20 should come from Epson?\ You shouldn't be. Because we have been building computers in Japan since 1978. And we have been practicing ultra-high-quality precision manufacturing for a lot longer than that. We didn't jump right into the American microcomputer market. We could afford to bide our time; to wait for the product that was going to stand America on its ears.\ This is it.\ The Epson HX-20 image: /media/museum/pubs/epson_hx20_pub_2.jpg - title: 'U.S. ADVERT #2' subtitle: '' text: |- March 1983 advert said: The big differences between the Epson HX-20 Notebook Computer (on the left) and the Apple Computer (on the right) are 1) the HX-20 doesn't need a power cord, 2) the HX-20 weights only about four pounds, and 3) the HX-20 costs a lot less money... image: /media/museum/pubs/epson_hx20_pub_3.jpg - title: UK ADVERT OCT. 1983 subtitle: '' text: |- Advert says:\ Never before in the history of modern computers has there been available a totally portable machine with the ability to cope with so many demands, to so many people, in so many different business areas.\ Epson, with over 20 years experience in designing and manufacturing high quality printers, have produced the HX-20, a precision machine with its own rechargeable power supply that can be used for just about any task within to days discerning business: from data capture to word processing, from card indexing to sales order entry.\ Communicating with other machines is no problem and the HX-20 is easily coupled to one of our fine printers. You can even link in another main computer system by using an acoustic coupler.\ Don't be fooled by its size, the HX-20 has all the software back-up you'd expect from a much larger machine and incorporates many "bigger computer" features - 16k RAM expandable to 32k with serial interfaces, a full size typewriter keyboard, it's own built in LCD screen and a dot matrix microprinter. A micro­cassette facility is available as an optional extra.\ A complete computer that will either stand on its own or could be the obvious extension to your existing system.\ More and more people are finding out just how big the small compact HX-20 is. Why don't you find out for yourself - you­ owe it to your business. image: /media/museum/pubs/epson_hx20_ukpub_s1.jpg - title: FRENCH AD (DEC. 1983) subtitle: '' text: '"EPSON HX-20: the world most powerful portative micro-computer"' image: /media/museum/pubs/epson_hx20_plus-puissant.jpg - title: FRENCH ADVERT subtitle: '' text: '''''Each day, go on the computing road''''' image: /media/museum/pubs/epson_pub_hx-qx_1.jpg hardware: - title: BAR CODE READER subtitle: '' text: |- Connected to the HX-20 or any other Epson portable, it makes it possible, for example, to read products data while working in a supermarket or a warehouse. **(1)** This chipset converts the signals received from the optical sensor into binary data (1 for a white lines, 0 for a black one) which are then interpreted by the computer. **(2)** the optical sensor is an electronic "eye" which reacts proportionaly to the intensity of the light it receives. Of course, white surfaces reflect more light than black ones, and the optical sensor thus sends two different voltages. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_hx20_lightpen_1.jpg - title: PF-10 FDD UNIT subtitle: '' text: |- 3.5", 360 KB, double side floppy disc drive unit. Can be operated with either internal Ni-Cd battery (90 mn life) or AC adaptor. Note the dual serial mini-din plug allowing either a second floppy drive unit or a serial printer to be connected using the serial daisy chain.\ Speed transfer rate is of 38.4 KB per second. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_px8_fddunit_1.jpg - title: TF-15 FDD UNIT subtitle: Dual 5.25'' floppy-disk unit text: Each drive had 640 KB capacity (80 tracks x 16 sectors x 256 bytes). Information was transferred through a high speed serial interface, at 38,4 Kbits per second. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_px8_tf15dualfdunit_s1.jpg - title: P-40 THERMAL PRINTER subtitle: '' text: The P-40 was a 40-80 column thermal printer which used 11 cm wide thermal paper rolls. It was powered by rechargeable batteries. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_px8_p40printer_s1.jpg - title: P-40 BOX subtitle: '' text: P-40 box with two boxes of five paper rolls. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_px8_p40printerbox_s1.jpg - title: INTERNAL 16 KB BOARD subtitle: '' text: |- This 16 KB RAM board is connected internally to the RAM expansion connector. About this kind of internal RAM board, **Gary Thomson** reports to us:\ I used to work for a company called P & M Data Services Ltd. who were an Epson dealer based in Wigan, Lancs, UK.\ Back in 1983-1985 we manufactured memory expansion boards for the HX-20 (upto 128Kb).\ The HX-20 memory expansion cards by P&M was similar to the card shown in the photo - it fitted the same way (to the protruding pins on the back of the motherboard) - but was a full-length card very similar to the Epson "official" external unit.\ The 32KB and 64KB cards went all the way across, the 128KB card was the same lengh, just deeper as it used piggy-backed memory chips. As this machine couldn't address more than 32KB of memory the novel thing about the P&M cards was the bank-switching software (developed by Nigel Burton and Devajit Mukajee & later improved by myself) which allowed for the paging of 4, 8 and 16KB banks. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_hx20_internalramexp_s1.jpg - title: 16 KB EXPANSION UNIT subtitle: '' text: This module is fixed to the right side of the main unit. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_hx20_expunit16k_s1.jpg - title: 16 KB EXPANSION UNIT subtitle: Inside text: |- The module holds eight 2 KB static RAM chips (NEC D449). 8 KB ROM chips can be installed in two empty sockets.\ Four dip-switches control the memory addressing. image: /media/museum/hardware/epson_hx20_expunit16k_s2.jpg connectors: - title: SERIAL RS-232 INTERFACE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/connectors/epson_hx20_serialsocket_2.jpg - title: HI SPEED SERIAL INTERFACE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/connectors/epson_hx20_serialsocket_1.jpg emulators: - title: Takeda Toshiya's homepage url: http://homepage3.nifty.com/takeda-toshiya/ platform: Windows text: one of the many emulators writtent by this awesome japanese guy links: - title: An HX-20 Enthusiast's Page url: http://classway.com/hx20/ text: '' - title: Demo "Buried By Sands Of Time" by "bEnd oF crUsH" url: http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=50186 text: -running demo running on a Epson HX-20 - scored 2nd on BreakPoint 2008 in category "Wild console" - title: Epson HX-20 Programs url: http://www.geocities.com/abcmcfarren/hx20/hx20.htm text: Download programs & games for your HX-20! - title: EPSON official site url: http://support.epson.com/hardware/computer/portable/hx20__/documentation.html text: There are still official documents (PDF) to download herer !! docs: - title: OPERATION MANUAL url: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/epson_hx20_operation-manual.jpg text: |- [**OPERATION MANUAL**](http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc)written by Kenneth Skier / Epson  compiled/archived by Epson\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Epson official web site](http://www.epson.com) - title: QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE url: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/epson_hx20_quick-reference-guide.jpg text: |- [**QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE**](http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc)written by Epson  compiled/archived by Epson\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Epson official web site](http://www.epson.com) - title: PRODUCT BROCHURE url: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/epson_hx20_brochure.jpg text: |- [**PRODUCT BROCHURE**](http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc)written by Epson  compiled/archived by Epson\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Epson official web site](http://www.epson.com) - title: TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS url: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vide.gif text: |- [**TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS**](http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14492&infoType=Doc)written by Epson  compiled/archived by Epson\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Epson official web site](http://www.epson.com) videos: - title: Epson HX-20 commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUueKeoKPc0 text: 'Length: 32s' - title: Epson HX-20 demos url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atklmnxwTNU text: 'Length: 4:04' - title: Epson HX-20 presentation url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeMp7Cu-hGk text: 'Length: 7:08' - title: Printing on an Epson HX-20 url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeLYWXZ6pE8 text: 'Length: 55s' comments: - author: Frigolit (Uppsala, Sweden) date: Tuesday 8th February 2011 text: |- I got my dad''s HX-20 when I was about 7-8 years old or something. It''s 27 years old now and is still working, except for the microcassette... I should try repairing it some day.\ My dad did both software and hardware development for the HX-20, including a parallel I/O board called the HX-PIA (Parallel Interface Adapter i think) which is pretty nostalgic for me for various reasons. It''s also the first computer I programmed on. A while ago I set out to build an emulator for the HX-20 and it''s going pretty well. As of right now, most opcodes are implemented (\~10 remaining) and the ROM is trying to write stuff to the LCD right now :)\ At the same time I''m fixing documentation, graphics and photos for pretty much everything about the HX-20 which I will post on my site and on the Wikipedia page. Thanks a lot to Lorenzo for hxtape, I haven''t tried it yet but it''ll definitely come in handy.\ If anyone has programs, as ROMs, cassettes, BASIC code or hex dumps, it would be great if you could send them to me for archiving.\ I can even accept physical ROMs via mail since I''ve built a ROM dumper. I wanna go as overkill as I can with this :) - author: Lorenzo J. Lucchini (Italy) date: Saturday 13rd February 2010 text: |- I''ve written a small program to read and write HX-20 using a PC soundcard, and transfer data to and from an HX-20 with an audio cable. It is in a very preliminary state, but it works for me. It can be found at http://hxtape.sourceforge.net/ and feel free to contact me (via mail or SourceForge forum) if you encounter any problems with it. If it works for you, then also feel free to upload any HX-20 programs you have to the wiki! - author: Mark Barratt (UK) date: Monday 5th September 2005 text: The Epson HX-20 was used by a lot of retail environments in the uK as it was handy to carry around stock rooms and print lists etc. One of the biggest users was a firm called Vestric which was a pharmaceutical company and franchised many local chemist shops. they had to use these devices for prescription labels and stock control, ordering items over an acoustic coupler. To the best of my knowledge, there are still some in use today. - author: Geoff Barnard (England) date: Saturday 16th January 2021 text: 'Anyone looking for the famous game for the HX-20, by Simon Taylor, BOMBER/BLITZ, this has now been ''''recovered'''' from an old microcassette from Simon. .WAV ready to LOAD can be downloaded from: https://www.pjspot.com/hx-20/?page_id$322 Geoff' - author: Geoff Barnard (Guisborough, England) date: Monday 16th March 2020 text: |- Regarding the battery, my HX-20 has been running for some years using an external pack (4 @ D cells), wire connected to the wires inside. Not so ''portable'' but charge lasts longer and OK by me. One day I''ll organise something internal, various options available.\ I now use Lorenzo''s hxtape sysrem with a laptop for SAVE/LOAD or progs, this opens doow to accessing the progs directly as .TXT for printing, or editing on a PC and then loading the prog back to HX. Geoff - author: David Filmer date: Tuesday 14th June 2016 text: |- Epson HX-20 Product Brochure: https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/hx20\_\_/hx20\_\_sl.pdf\ User Manual: https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/hx20\_\_/hx20\_\_u1.pdf Contemporary magazine review from Creative Computing (March 1983):\ http://archive.org/stream/creativecomputing-1983-03/Creative_Computing_v09_n03_1983_March$page/n103/mode/2up\ The article notes, “This is the first computer for which the documentation is larger and weighs more than the computer itself.” - author: David Filmer date: Tuesday 14th June 2016 text: |- in 1985, Freightliner heavy trucks sold a Limited Edition "Interstate 200" model which included the “Trucker’s Portable Accountant Computer System” based on the HX-20. You can see a picture of it in the sales brochure: http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/stephen_procter/2003/nov27/email008081.jpg - author: Owen Mooney (New Zealand) date: Sunday 29th November 2015 text: Finding this brings back memories! In 1984 I was designing a simulator for the ionosphere using a (then) high performance DSP processor. We were about to embark on the build of a user interface (using a custom microprocessor deign) when this came along. It did the UI brilliantly!, as well as computing some complex equations. I''m proud to say this must be one of the earliest SOA architectures around - author: Peter Simpson (England) date: Thursday 7th November 2013 text: I bought an HX20 to see if I could use it as a portable computer for journalists at the newspaper group where I worked. One of its great strengths was the superb keyboard which had a lovely feel that has rarely if at all been bettered since. Journos were not happy about the output from the printer though. I ended up putting into the field Texas Instruments Silent 700''s. The HX 20 I still have and (2013) it still works - author: Philip Mallon (Australia) date: Saturday 21st July 2012 text: I loved this computer and still have it. I purchased the expansion unit and programmed a number of ROM application programs. Its biggest impact here in Australia was that my work, the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) used it as a SCATS traffic signals terminal. I also programmed it to be a real time GIS (Geographical Information System) using the barcode reader connected to a car''s odometer - this was NSW government''s offical RoadLoc system and was used for many year''s until GPS based system''s came along. I developed a CMOS eurocard based Data acquisition system for it using the same 6301 processor and this was used for many road and surveying projects including a profilometer. It was also used to maintain all the electronic toll systems in NSW. The preat thing about it was that EPSON encouraged third party development - documentation was the best for any computer ever and I still have all of the engineering manuals. - author: Vie (UK) date: Thursday 7th June 2012 text: For those of you of an Automotive bent, you might be interested to know that this particular computer was fitted in the ''Executive'' trim level of Daimler DS420 limousines during the mid 1980''s. For some reason they fitted two of them, along with a large amount of other hardware - including a printer. Seems rather incongruous to fit a printer when the computers it must have been hooked up to already had built in printers. Maybe they had some custom software for word processing or something? - author: Holger Steinmann (Germany) date: Thursday 17th April 2008 text: |- The silver version was indeed sold in Germany (I still got one). Two extensions were also available:\ 1\. A box to connect a standard monitor (enabling a display of 80x40) - almost a 'must' for doing serious programming...\ 2\. a dual floppy drive (more expensive than the HX-20 itself), which offered a great advantage against the tape for storing and loading data. - author: Harald Dehner (Germany) date: Monday 7th April 2008 text: On the Demo-scene-event "Breakpoint 2008" (see http://breakpoint.untergrund.net/ ) someone calling himself "bEnd oF crUsH" entered competition in the category "Wild console" with a small BASIC-program featuring graphics, printing (!) and sound on a Espon HX-20. He placed 2nd. A video of that demo can be downloaded on http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=50186 - author: Andrea Gangemi (Italy) date: Thursday 28th June 2007 text: |- HX-20 has been my very first computer where i learned BASIC language, I was just 11.\ It was bought by my father back in the early 80's to have a portable system to make some numerical analisys on pressurized lines.\ When he was not using it i was playing with it and doing some very simple programs.\ Wonder if some PC emulator exixts - author: A. Clarkson (UK) date: Sunday 18th July 2004 text: I used to work as a telephone engineer and came across one of these, with an expansion pack, but branded with a British Telecom logo rather than Epson. They'd sold them to collect call logging information. We were removing it, and I also got a huge bag of tapes, all dutifully labelled with dates! They came in really useful, being the same type as used in most dictaphones. I still have a few, but I imagine the data on them will be pretty boring - early nineties call records for some company in Northern England! - author: Arno (Winschoten, NL) date: Sunday 30th June 2002 text: For the HX-20 there existed several programs in ROM, as I once had a text-editor, a forth-compiler, an assembler, and some more. Don't know, where to find them now; if I could have new batteries for my old HX-20, I could send you some programs by mail, and you could burn them in eprom. - author: Finnegan (Minnesota, US) date: Sunday 26th May 2002 text: I'm just wondering if anyone knows if the HX-20 had any pre-loaded ROM software (text editor, etc.)? I can't seem to track down an answer to this question... related: - /museum/epson-px-8-hc-88-geneva oc_id: 143 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230602184233/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=143 date: '2023-06-02' --- Superbly designed and engineered, the Epson HX20 can be considered as the first true portable computer. It was the only package available at the time which included a microcassette drive, a mini-printer and a LCD display. The small built-in printer could print graphics or text (up to 24 columns, 47 lines per minute). The small tape recorder was pretty fast (considering it was a tape drive). The computer rewinds or fast forwards the tape automatically to find the right file. This tape recorder could be removed and replaced with a ROM cartridge. Two case colours were released, cream and silver. To our knowledge, the silver version was intended for some European countries. It was sold in Germany for example. --- RealVoice expansion, by **Gary Clouse**:\ A company call RealVoice sold Epson HX-20 computers with a custom expansion box bolted to the side that turned the computer into an Agumentative Communication Device (ACD) for use by people with disabilities that caused extreme speech impairment.\ The ACD software worked in several modes, and customized settings and special vocabularies could be saved on the tape, or printed on the printer. It could accept keyboard input, a special "picture keyboard", or a simple switch that could be used for "scanning" or morse code imput.\ Regardless of the input method, the RealVoice produced clear human-sounding speech. I have an HX-20 with the RealVoice module and it still works in 2006!