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

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Panasonic FS A1 ST	Computers	Home Computer	Japan	1990	8-bit Zilog Z80A	name company company_name specs tabs photos emulators links comments related oc_id source FS A1 ST /companies/panasonic Panasonic label value NAME FS A1 ST label value MANUFACTURER Panasonic label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Japan label value YEAR ? 1990 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE MSX Basic V4.0 + 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 8-bit Zilog Z80A and 16-bit RISC R800 (DAR800-X0G) label value SPEED Z80A: 3.579545 MHz / R800: 28.636360 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR S1990 MSX-ENGINE, TC8566AF disk controller label value RAM 256 KB (expandable to 512 KB or even 1 MB internally) + 16kB SRAM for backup (used internally) label value VRAM 128 KB label value ROM 32 KB (BASIC/BIOS ROM) + 32 KB (SUBROM MSX-BASIC V4.0) + 16 KB (FM-Basic ROM) + 16 KB (MSX Disk ROM) + 16 KB (Kanji Basic) + 2MB ROM (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 MSX MUSIC (Yamaha YM-2413 OPLL) + PCM synthesizer 8-bit (sample rate 16kHz) + Internal microphone for the PCM unit 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/CVBS (NTSC) output, Composite Video, Centronics, Microphone connector, User port label value BUILT IN MEDIA Built-in 3.5'' disk drive (720 KB) label value OS MSX-DOS V2.30 label value POWER SUPPLY 100V±10% 50/60Hz, 22w label value PRICE About $500 in Japan, about $700 in Europe (unofficial import) photos emulators links title subtitle text image FS-A1 ST null title subtitle text image BIGGER PICTURE null title subtitle text image REAR null title url platform text BlueMSX http://www.bluemsx.com/ Windows Excellent free MSX emulator that can reproduce MSX, MSX2, MSX2+, and Turbo-R. The emulator also supports the SVI318/328, and ColecoVision systems ! title url platform text openMSX - The MSX emulator that aims for perfection. http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/ Multiplatform This new MSX emulator can reproduce, among many other MSX, MSX2and MSX2+ machines, both Panasonic Turbo-R models. Be sure to get the catapult frontend and the system roms from FUNET. title url text FILE-HUNTER.COM http://www.file-hunter.com/ Excellent! All MSX emulators, sources and utilities! title url text MSX French Club http://www.chez.com/msxfr/turbor.html Nice and complete description of the TurboR systems (in French) title url text MSX Ultimate FAQ - Turbo R page http://www.faq.msxnet.org/msxtr.html Very nice info from this excellent site! author date text Roger Jowett (Ulster) Thursday 28th February 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$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-gt 775 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230410214603/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=775 2023-04-10

Due to lack of interest in marketing of MSX-machines and growing interest in game consoles and powerful PC alike computers (for word processing purposes mainly), companies were not so enthusiastic about creating a new MSX-machine. The biggest software supporters of MSX deserted to Nintendo and other computers/game machines. Sony chose to make their own game console as well ASCII in cooperation with Yamaha and Panasonic created the 3DO (Three Dimensional Objects) game console.

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. 6 LEDs are placed on the case (Power, Caps-lock, Kana-lock, Pause, CPU mode, FDD in use). The system was delivered with a painting program on disk.

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.

The FS-A1 ST will be followed by the FS-A1 GT.

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Source : The Ultimate MSX FAQ

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