website/content/museum/nec-apc-iii.md

---
title: NEC APC III
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- Japan
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- Intel 8086
params:
  name: APC III
  image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apciii_system_s1.jpg
  company: /companies/nec
  company_name: NEC
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: APC III
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: NEC
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Japan
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1983'
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: 101-key with 12 function keys, cursor and numeric keypads
  - label: CPU
    value: Intel 8086
  - label: SPEED
    value: 8 MHz
  - label: RAM
    value: 128 KB up to 640 KB
  - label: VRAM
    value: Unknown
  - label: ROM
    value: Unknown
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 40 or 80 columns x 25 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 640 x 400 dots bit-mapped color
  - label: SOUND
    value: Internal speaker
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Floppy Disk Drive, RS-232C, Printer, C-bus slot x 6
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: 2 internal TEAC FD-55B-01-U 5.25'' floppy drives - 720 KB in native mode, 360 KB with the SLE board
  - label: OS
    value: Special version of MS-DOS 2.11
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: External hard disk drives
  - label: PRICE
    value: About $3,000 with internal 10 MB hard drive 1984
  tabs:
  - photos
  photos:
  - title: LARGER VIEW
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apciii_system_s2.jpg
  - title: FRONT PANEL
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      10 MD HDD version.

      Thanks to **Chevy**
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apciii_frontview_s1.jpg
  - title: REAR SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** Keyboard connector\
      **(2)** Monochrome monitor plug\
      **(3)** External HDD controller card housing\
      **(4)** Colour RGB monitor DB9 plug\
      **(5)** Configuration switches\
      **(6)** Serial RS-232 interface connector\
      **(7)** Two additional serial ports\
      **(8)** Parallel printer connector
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apciii_rearside_s1.jpg
  - title: EXPANSION CARD SLOTS
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      An extra memory card is inserted in one of the four expansion slots.

      Thanks to **Chevy**
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apciii_expcard_s1.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to **Chevy**
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apciii_keyboard_s1.jpg
  - title: INSIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to **Chevy**
    image: /media/museum/photos/nec_apciii_inside_s2.jpg
  comments:
  - author: Chris (New Jersey)
    date: Sunday 20th March 2016
    text: |-
      I have a working APC III and color monitor, fully decked out. It has the 8087 option and the SLE board, which stands for Software Library Expander, giving it essentially full IBM compatibility. I haven''t tested it, but the hard drive has/had Jeopardy loaded, and it seemed to run fine. Ok not MS Flight Simulator or Lotus 1-2-3 (IBM version), which were designated compatibility litmus tests back in the day, but I assume it''s pretty compatible. I''d have to pull it out and dust it off and mess with it some. I doubt the h/d will boot anymore, but I have all the necessary s/w images, including those necessary to activate the SLE subsystem.\
      From the looks of it, the III is the American market version of the PC-9801, or very similar at least. Has the same cards/card cage in the back. C-Bus? A 9801 would be very very cool to have, Japanese to the hilt, but I''m still proud of my APC III.
  - author: Rob Sullivan (Washington/USA)
    date: Tuesday 7th May 2013
    text: I used both the original APC and the APCIII. They were cutting edge computers at the time. My father was IS Director for NEC Technologies at the time so I got to play with most of the new NEC products, including some of their home audio gear. I really liked the APC with the two 1MB floppies and 10MB hard drive. Moonball was great on that having the color screen. My dad used it for doing letters (stuffing envelopes) for an organization outside Boston and the machine would keep me up at night as both floppies were very noisy when being accessed for the mail merge (can''t remember what the word processing program was". But it would be going all night long processing the letters and then printing them out on the NEC Spinwriter, a letter quality printer at the time. It''s funny how looking back on those days how amazing they seemed.. even compared to today with all the technology. I guess it was my age and the newness of computers, but there was something special about messing around
      with these computers. I''ve been in and out of IT for 35 years now (and my dad a lot longer) and these old computers have a special place in my heart.
  - author: Paulo (Portugal)
    date: Monday 25th February 2013
    text: I used an APC III back in 82/83. It booted in BASIC direct if no floppy was $ed. The floppy drive was an accessory that came later and a wonder to me! Before that I had to type the program I needed to run line by line every time it was turned on again! With floppies also came the possibility to boot in other operating systems. I used CP/M and the fantastic programs DR-Draw and DR-Graph. Also Wordperfect! Miss those days!
  - author: Martin (United States)
    date: Monday 12th November 2012
    text: I have an APC III (it was my fathers), still fully operational. He added an 8087 math co-processor to it to generate Mandlebrot sets (fractals) that are beautiful. It also has the optional sound card in it. Still have the NEC "Moonball" pinball game software - it is great fun to play to this day. I have the original NEC manuals in binders also.
  - author: John Negus (Australia)
    date: Saturday 2nd June 2012
    text: I am an architect and used this system to document buildings using Autocad written specifically for the APC 111. It was comparable to its predecessor, the APC CP/M computer, but used 5.25" floppies instead of 8" and was cheaper. It had 8 colours instead of the 4 of the IBM PC and a better processor (8086). I had the expansion card which allowed me to use the DOS version of Wordperfect for my specifications. I purchased it as soon as it was released in Australia and used it as a production machine until around 1990. A great machine in its day!!!
  - author: Mr Neil (Australia)
    date: Sunday 12th February 2012
    text: Cool machine, I had Pinball Magic? and Flight Leader. I was lucky enough to get a 2nd machine and monitor, this one had the 10mb HDD. I wonder what they''re worth these days? It''s solid and heavy, all the boards have chunky quality components.
  - author: Paul (Australia)
    date: Saturday 14th January 2012
    text: |-
      My father purchased this exact P.C for his floor coverings business and our family to use.

      It was very frustating when it didn''t play MS DOS based games properly. Wierd graphics and dodgy compatibility made loading and playing games a challenge to say the least.

      I have many fond memories though, this P.C certainly had "character" and it was super reliable over many of the dodgy asian clones being sold at the time.
  - author: Paul (Australia)
    date: Saturday 14th January 2012
    text: |-
      My father purchased this exact P.C for his floor coverings business and our family to use.

      It was very frustating when it didn''t play MS DOS based games properly. Wierd graphics and dodgy compatibility made loading and playing games a challenge to say the least.

      I have many fond memories though, this P.C certainly had "character" and it was super reliable over many of the dodgy asian clones being sold at the time.
  - author: Paul (Australia)
    date: Saturday 14th January 2012
    text: |-
      My father purchased this exact P.C for his floor coverings business and our family to use.

      It was very frustating when it didn''t play MS DOS based games properly. Wierd graphics and dodgy compatibility made loading and playing games a challenge to say the least.

      I have many fond memories though, this P.C certainly had "character" and it was super reliable over many of the dodgy asian clones being sold at the time.
  - author: Alex Young (USA)
    date: Tuesday 1st May 2007
    text: |-
      The APC III was my first system, and I used it for many years.

      The only thing I think I can add here is a note that there was an optional sound card with a very limited range of tones.

      The machine was a tank and survived at least a decade and a half before the hard drive finally failed.

      There was an included diskette with a bunch of proprietary games and such on it with one addictively simple title "cows and cars".
  - author: Patrick Mannion (Lynn, Massachusetts USA)
    date: Friday 23rd April 2004
    text: Ahhhhh... the NEC APC III, the first computer our family had. My dad got it becuase he used to work for NECIS (NEC Info Systems) in Braintree, Mass. I remember I used to watch my dad use and some times I would sit in front of it. I never really used it, I could be wrong becuase my memory is rusty. Then, about summer or two ago I was cleaning out in our dirty dirty basement and lo and behold there it was in its glory but all dusty and dirty, then I stumbled upon a bunch of manuals, one which a ring binder of what seemed be a catalog and some expansion boards, I believe. I would be willing to share them.
  - author: Richard Bramante (USA)
    date: Sunday 29th February 2004
    text: |-
      This was a tough machine for me to get software for. I serached the net for quite awhile and came up empty. I got lots of offers for original APC software on 8" floppies, but hardly a nibble for APC III stuff. I finally found someone who came upon some APC III disks and was able to get DOS and DR Draw for this machine.

      I'd love more software to try out, as this seems like an interesting machine. I copy of PC/UX would be a neat thing to try assuming I have the hardware to run it. Please let me know if you can help me out with some disk images.
  oc_id: 996
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230324112835/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=996
    date: '2023-03-24'
---

The Nec APC III appears to be the U.S. version of the [NEC PC-9801](/museum/nec-pc-9801-f/), which was made in a variety of configurations.

This machine was partially IBM PC compatible, but neither the PC bus or BIOS were cloned. It had an NEC 7220 graphics chip which was not directly CGA compatible, but was much higher resolution, and quite fast for its day.

The CPU is an 8086 running at 8 MHz with 128K of memory. The system used an OEM version of MS-DOS 2.11, modified to work with its non-standard BIOS and hardware. Simple DOS applications that did not make use of IBM BIOS calls or of lower-level hardware would work.

Optionally there was an expansion board called **SLE** (for Software Library Expander) which some nicknamed *the SLEeze board*. This board included a second 8086 processor, Phoenix BIOS and memory. In conjunction with its accompanying software this board allowed for "more PC compatibility" by emulating a true PC clone with CGA graphics. Accounts of how well this actually worked vary.

NEC also ported a version of **System III UNIX** and released it as **PC-UX** available as an optional OS. NEC also provided a hardware-based virtual memory paging board for PC-UX which helped performance.

Other options included a 10MB hard drive. Memory was expandable to 640K.

Thanks to **Richard Bramante** for information and pictures.

<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>