---
title: Philips P3000
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- Netherlands
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- 2 x Z80A
params:
  name: P3000
  image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p3000_system_1.jpg
  company: /companies/philips
  company_name: Philips
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: P3000
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Philips
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Netherlands
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1983'
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full stroke 81 keys with 8 function keys and numeric keypad
  - label: CPU
    value: 2 x Z80A
  - label: SPEED
    value: Unknown
  - label: RAM
    value: 64 KB?
  - label: VRAM
    value: Unknown
  - label: ROM
    value: Unknown
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 chars x 25 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: Unknown
  - label: COLORS
    value: Monochrome
  - label: SOUND
    value: Simple beep
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: Unknown
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: 2 x 5.25'' floppy discs
  - label: OS
    value: CP/M?
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Unknown
  - label: PRICE
    value: Unknown
  tabs:
  - photos
  forum_thread: 884
  photos:
  - title: LARGER SYSTEM
    subtitle: ''
    text: Notice that doors of both floppy drives are opened.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p3000_system_2.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p3000_keyboard_1.jpg
  oc_id: 904
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230605033102/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=904
    date: '2023-06-05'
---

almost no information about this computer which features seems to be similar to the [P2000C](/museum/philips-p2000c/).

Hopefully, **jim apperley** from Canada helps us:\
The Philips word processors of the early to mid 80s were built in the Town of Mount Royal (TMR), Montreal, Canada, by Micom a subsidiary of Philips. They retained the Micom brand name in Canada and US where the brand was quite well respected.

Later Micom was integrated into Philips Information Systems PhIS (always remember the "h" please!).\
The twin Z80 system was originally designed to retain compatiblity with the mid 1970s Micom 8080 based systems. The earlier systems used 8" hard sectored floppies.

After a rapid and successful development including transfer of applications (in <12 months), marketing decided to make it into a CPM machine. This coupled with production delays and problems with the 2/3rd height disk drives from Philips delayed market entry for more than a year, just before the PC came out. The project was codenamed Swift.

At the same time a larger Z8000 system was developed (codenamed Eagle) for the Swedish teletex system. This had amazing video quality for the time with Black on white, 70Hz, >40Mhz dot rate. There was even a full page system just like the Xerox systems (screen rotated right with close to 1000 lines).\
This design ultimately failed due to code growth (insufficient memory.) The code was compressed by changing from compiled to interpreted mode, whereupon speed dropped to the point where it could not keep up with an average typist. The Eagles were replaced in the teletex system by Swifts.

I worked on the Floppy systems of both machines. Depending on the age of the system you may find the NEC765 Floppy controller on a daughter board with a PAL. On later systems this was incorporated onto the motherboard.

The P3000 was sold outside America as P5020

---

More information on the P3000 and P2000 series of word processing systems by **Bruce Quantock**:\
I worked for Philips from 1981 to 1988. The P3000 series was available in the following:\
**P3003** - 1 floppy\
**P3004** - 2 floppy\
**P3005** - 1 floppy, 1 hard drive\
Options included impact printers (TEC), and HP LaserJet (SX1 engine). A comm board was also available, that supported asynchronous communication, as well as the Miconet protocol.\
Memory was available from 64k to 128k.

Before the P3000 series, Philips also sold the P2000 series.\
**2000** Sold under the **Micom** name. Came with one Shugart floppy drive. The printers supported were the Qume and the TEC.\
**2001** Standalone system. Came with two Shugart floppy drives. The printers supported were the Qume and the TEC.\
**2002** Two terminal unit that could support two printers. Also came with two Shugart floppy drives.\
**2005** Called **the Cluster**. Could support four workstations and four printers. The 2005 Cluster had a hard drive with a single Shugart floppy drive.

The Philips headquarters were located in Dallas, TX, and I worked out of the Chicago Office.\
Philips also purchased the rights from Corona computers, and came out with several PC compatible systems.\
When Word Perfect came out, it was the end of the Dedicated Word Processing systems. One could purchase a PC with Word Perfect for less than an annual service contract on the Philips system.\
In 1989 Philips Information Systems based in Dallas, TX closed their doors, and sold the service contracts they had to Diebold. The Chicago Branch was closed in the spring of 1989.