website/content/museum/panasonic-fs-a1-gt.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Panasonic FS A1 GT	Computers	Home Computer	Japan	1991	Zilog Z80A	name company company_name specs tabs photos emulators links comments related oc_id source FS A1 GT /companies/panasonic Panasonic label value NAME FS A1 GT label value MANUFACTURER Panasonic label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Japan label value YEAR 1991 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE MSX Basic V4.1, MSX View, Japanese text editor, a spread sheat and a sample program label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard, JIS standard layout, 91 keys\ built-in software selector switch, reset button, disk removal button, auto-fire speed adjustment knob, Pause button label value CPU Zilog Z80A and R800 (16 Bit RISC) label value SPEED Z80A: 3.579545 MHz / R800: 28.636360 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Video chip must be compatible with the Yamaha VG9938 or V9958, sound chip must be compatible with the General Instruments AY8910 label value RAM 512 KB + 32 KB S-RAM (for backup) label value VRAM 128 KB label value ROM 32 KB (BASIC/BIOS ROM) + 32 KB (SUBROM MSX-BASIC V4.0) + 16 KB (MIDI-Basic ROM) + 16 KB (MSX Disk Basic) + 16 KB (Kanji Basic) + 512 KB (MSX View) + 2 MB (Japanese text editor, a spread sheat and a sample program) + MSX JE ROM (with approx. 32000 characters) label value TEXT MODES 80 x 25 / 40 x 25 / 32 x 25 label value GRAPHIC MODES 64 x 48 / 256 x 192 / 256 x 212 / 512 x 212 / 512 x 424 label value COLORS 16 / 16 - 256 / 16 among 512 / 19268 label value SOUND AY-8910 + YM-2413 chip (9 channels of music) + PCM 8-bit synthesizer = 13 available channels!\ MSX-MIDI interface built-in label value SIZE / WEIGHT 425 (W) x 292 (D) x 89 (H) mm / 3.4 Kg label value I/O PORTS Joystick (2), Cartridge (2), RGB video output, Composite Video, SVHS output, Centronics, Microphone output, MIDI interface (IN & OUT), User port label value BUILT IN MEDIA Built-in 3.5'' disk drive (720 KB) label value OS MSX-DOS V2.31 label value POWER SUPPLY 100V±10% 50/60Hz, 22w label value PRICE 99,800 yen (Japan, 1991) photos emulators links title subtitle text image TURBOR FS A1 GT null title url platform text BlueMSX http://www.bluemsx.com/ Windows Excellent free MSX emulator that can reproduce MSX, MSX2, MSX2+, and Turbo-R. The emulator also supports the SVI318/328, and ColecoVision systems ! title url platform text openMSX - The MSX emulator that aims for perfection. http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/ Multiplatform This new MSX emulator can reproduce, among many other MSX, MSX2and MSX2+ machines, both Panasonic Turbo-R models. Be sure to get the catapult frontend and the system roms from FUNET. title url text FILE-HUNTER.COM http://www.file-hunter.com/ Excellent! All MSX emulators, sources and utilities! title url text MSX French Club http://www.chez.com/msxfr/turbor.html Nice and complete description of the TurboR systems (in French) title url text MSX Ultimate FAQ - Turbo R page http://www.faq.msxnet.org/msxtr.html Very nice info from this excellent site! title url text MSX-VIEW http://www.chez.com/msxfr/msxviewp.html A description of MSX-VIEW, the graphical operating system (in French) author date text Roger Jowett (Ulster) Thursday 28th February 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$zsjTpFR0oYQ please help\ trying to convert 8bit video for sam coupe\ this is still not mode 3 interlaced with hmpr bit 5$6 CLUT alterations per scan line HELP we only need a DMA...\ masterdos/basic atom lite support /museum/msx-turbo-r /museum/panasonic-fs-a1-st 627 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230604043356/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=627 2023-06-04

This system is a MSX Turbo R. It is one of the last MSX computer ever made. It is the successor of the MSX 2+ systems and thus has many characteristics in common. New features include a new PCM sound chip which can sample sound up to 15 KHz and replay up to 22 kHz. There is an internal microphone for the PCM unit. There is also an additional CPU, the R800 wich is a 16-bit RISC processor. The user can select the CPU (Z80 or R800) by software.

The FS-A1 GT follows the FS-A1 ST, and so introduces some improvements over it. Due to some minor bugs discovered, the mainboard is a bit different (e.g. FM-PAC part is redesigned to decrease influence of the noise from computer's digital parts). The MSX-BASIC, version 4.1 instead of 4.0, has MIDI extensions. Indeed the FS-A1 GT has a MSX-MIDI interface built-in with MIDI in/out connectors! The RAM size is of 512 KB, instead of 256 KB. The MSX-DOS is now version V2.31. There is a SVHS video port and the size of the SRAM is now 32 KB.

MSX View, developed by ASCII & HAL, is a Windows-style graphic interface. It is built-in ROM. The OS is delivered with programs such as Page Edit, PageView, Page Link, VShell, VTed, VPaint and VDraw) on 512kB ROM DISK (C: drive). There is no tape recorder port, so strictly speaking, it's not an MSX!

Panasonic stopped the production of the Turbo R when they launched the 3DO game system in 1992. They failed with this system and never returned to MSX. Lot of extensions, however, were produced by third-party companies to enhance the Turbo R, among them, an OPL4 Sound Card, a VGA card with lot of hardware sprites and IDE or SCSI interfaces.

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Source : The Ultimate MSX FAQ David Heremans reports:
There is a mixed mode where you can have +4096 colors simultaneously with an extra 16 indexed colors so that still pictures in full color can be displayed while the index palatte of 16 redefinable colors can be used for all kind of effects. But trying to display that would probably be a litle long for the small space reserved for it on the page.