--- title: Hitachi S1 categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - Japan cpus: - Motorola 68B09E params: name: S1 image: /media/museum/photos/hitachi_s1_1.jpg company: /companies/hitachi company_name: Hitachi specs: - label: NAME value: S1 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Hitachi - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: Japan - label: YEAR value: Unknown - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Unknown - label: KEYBOARD value: Full-stroke keyboard with numeric keypad - label: CPU value: Motorola 68B09E - label: SPEED value: 1/2 MHz - label: RAM value: 106 KB (max 618 KB) - label: VRAM value: Unknown - label: ROM value: 24 KB (Level3 Basic) + 64 KB (S1 Basic) - label: TEXT MODES value: Unknown - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 640 x 200 / 320 x 200 - label: COLORS value: '256' - label: SOUND value: Unknown - label: I/O PORTS value: Tape, RS232C, Printer - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: optional external 5.25 - label: OS value: Built in Basic - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in power supply unit - label: PRICE value: $1199 (Australia, 1985) tabs: - photos photos: - title: THE S1-45 subtitle: '' text: The S1 was followed by the S1-45 (I have no information about it). image: /media/museum/photos/s145.jpg - title: AUSTRALIAN PRICE LIST (1985) subtitle: '' text: Thanks to David Wilson for this picture image: /media/museum/photos/hitachi_mbs1_price-list.jpg comments: - author: Murray (Sydney, Australia) date: Saturday 18th November 2017 text: |- I now have two hitachi MB-6890K computers, I would like to contact anyone who has any more for sale or parts (or an S1).\ Any info about them and some software would be great as well!\ Thanks,\ Murray. - author: Rusty (Australia) date: Thursday 26th May 2016 text: Craig - it probably had my hard disk interface card in it. We didn''t sell many. I reverse engineered the os/9 level 2 card that was needed for os/9. It did the ram memory mapping as well as extra ram. I probably have my sketches somewhere. The S1 was a stunning piece of hardware in its day - it was full of custom ics as compared with the mb6890 which was pretty well all standard ics. - author: CraigM (Australia) date: Friday 15th November 2013 text: |- Just came accross this old thead. I too had a Hitachi peach and ended up with a S1 as well. They were sold in Australia. Was a great little beast of a box. I ended up purchasing OS9 from Hitachi Japan. The only issue is that out of the box it couldn''t read other 5.25" floppy disks from other OS9 systems. My brother who was a Flex/OS9 freak ended up re-writing some of the device drivers so I could read/write disks off his various systems. Was way ahead of it''s time imho. Ended up selling it for a pitance in the end :( craig - author: Roger D (California) date: Tuesday 23rd November 2010 text: My family had one of these, growing up in Australia in the 1980''s. In fact, it''s still there and as far as I know still works! - author: Leon Howell (Oregon, USA) date: Tuesday 1st February 2005 text: Could this be another OS-9 system, like the Fujitsu's? oc_id: 341 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20221205112156/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=341 date: '2022-12-05' --- Nearly nothing is known about this obscure system. Help welcome ! --- **Pat** from Australia, remembers:\ On a whim, I looked up the Hitachi S1. When I was much younger - probably in 1984 or 1985 - my dad worked as a Hitachi reseller in Australia. The S1 was not sold outside of Japan to my knowledge, but it did have English available as a language so that may not be for certain. What really caught my attention outside of the amazing computational capabilities and colours (having used Hitachi Peaches for quite a while) was that the S1 (or at least the one I was playing with) had a hard disk! If only I could remember the name of the games I was playing on this thing!
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.