website/content/museum/nec-apc.md

---
title: NEC APC
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- Japan
years:
- '1982'
cpus:
- NEC UPD-8086
params:
  name: APC
  image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apc_system_1.jpg
  company: /companies/nec
  company_name: NEC
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: APC
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: NEC
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Japan
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1982'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Typewriter type, 61 key + 25 key numeric/cursor pad + 22 function keys
  - label: CPU
    value: NEC UPD-8086
  - label: SPEED
    value: 5 Mhz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: NEC 7220 graphic chip, socket for a math co-processor
  - label: RAM
    value: 128 KB standard, 640 KB max.
  - label: VRAM
    value: Unknown
  - label: ROM
    value: 4 KB ROM, 4 KB battery-backed CMOS RAM
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 columns x 25 lines + 1 status line (8x19 dots character matrix)
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 640 x 475 pixels
  - label: COLORS
    value: '8'
  - label: SOUND
    value: Buzzer
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 48.3 (W) x 61 (D) x 35.5 (H) cm / heavy!
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: 1 or 2 x RS232 up to 19.200 baud, 1 x Parallel
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: |-
      2 x 8'' floppy disk drives (243 KB or 1 MB)\
      Optional hard-disk (9 or 18 MB formatted)
  - label: OS
    value: CP/M-86, UNIX and MS DOS in option
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: PSU built-in
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: 2nd RS-232 port, 32-bit floating point unit, Line drawing graphics subsystem, Very high resolution (1024x1024) , IBM emulation software, SDLC communication procedure
  - label: PRICE
    value: |-
      Monochrome, single floppy : $3,298 (US, 1983)\
      Monochrome : 27 800 FF (France, Dec. 83)\
      Color, dual floppy : $4,998 (US, 1983)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  forum_thread: 338
  photos:
  - title: PROMOTIONAL PICTURE
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apc_3.jpg
  - title: RUNNING SYSTEM
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **Dick Leary**, the proud owner of this machine says:\
      I bought this machine in 1983. It still works. I still have all documentation which was in hard cover binders and even included the engineering layouts for all the pcb boards. Very impressive.\
      When I got the machine, I wanted to communicate with bulletin boards and MCI but there was no comm software so I wound up writing my own and used it for several years until buying an IBM clone(UG!).\
      I also have a 10 meg hard drive which looks like a shoebox but at the time was state of the art. It was great machine in its day.
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apc_system_s2.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: U.S. ADVERT (1982)
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      As NEC american office wanted the APC to compete with the IBM PC. So they tried to do a pastiche of the [Charly Chaplin IBM advert](/museum/ibm-pc-model-5150/).\
      It was not a good idea.
    image: /media/museum/pubs/nec_apc_pub_1.jpg
  - title: 'U.S. ADVERT #2 (1982)'
    subtitle: ''
    text: As the first advert campaing was not a good idea, NEC of America replaced it with this one... which was not better
    image: /media/museum/pubs/nec_apc_pub_2.jpg
  oc_id: 333
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230417033459/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=333
    date: '2023-04-17'
---

This professional computer from NEC was a very nice system at the time. With its high resolution graphics (640 x 475) and its large disk capacity (1 MB), it sure was impressive in 1982!

**Bill Czermak** recalls:\
I developed the first version of MIPS (Manufacturers Integrated Production System) on one of the first colour APCs sold in Australia. I added a 5 Mb NEC harddisk later. The 8" floppies held 1.2 Mb. I am told my original system is in a museum in the Geelong area.

I added an XT compatibility card to port my software to the the IBM XT and my software worked fine using this card. When I installed it on a customer's genuine IBM, I got a blank screen!!! Which I fixed that day on the customer's premesis. I think the APC was 30% faster than the XT and cheaper with better graphics.

**Jeremiah S. Junken** reports :\
I actually have one of these which still works. By default, it runs CPM/86, there was a UNIX available, and MS-DOS available. Mine had an external 10MB HDD. The software included "benchmark" word processor, VisiCalc and dBase II.

The major things worth nothing about this otherwise unremarkable machine were it's relative speed, the fact that the lights would dim slightly when it was turned on, and that, in the year 2002, it still works. :-)

**Gary McCray** adds:\
I actually still have a working one of these also. Actually, it was pretty remarakable when it came out for its high resolution graphics capability using a (at the time) powerful NEC 7220 Graphics controller chip which formed the base strategy for virtually every other graphics controller since.

Unfortunately very little software was available that took advantage of its graphics capability. Also it was featured in one of the stupidist full page ads ever produced and ran for months with a giant hand covering it up and the admonition "The Computer The Competition Doesnt Want You to See" and a suggestion to write away for information on it (see 'Adverts' section). If that wasn't stupid enough, you couldn't actually get any information on it from either writing or calling.

It is remarkably well made and was extremely powerful and reliable in the time it was built (weighs over 80 lb). But a combination of truly stupid advertising and lack of easy access doomed it in the US to a very small group. It fared much better in Japan understandably, and surprisingly in Australia (no giant hand I guess). I developed graphics authoring programs for it that sold successfully in both Japan and Australia.

<table> <tr> <td></td> <td>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.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>