website/content/museum/sharp-mz-3500.md

---
title: Sharp MZ-3500
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- Japan
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- 2 x Zilog Z80 A
params:
  name: MZ-3500
  company: /companies/sharp
  company_name: Sharp
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: MZ-3500
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Sharp
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Japan
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1983'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full-stroke keyboard
  - label: CPU
    value: 2 x Zilog Z80 A
  - label: SPEED
    value: 4 MHz
  - label: RAM
    value: 128 KB (up to 256 KB)
  - label: ROM
    value: 8 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 chars x 25 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 640 x 400 dots (optional)
  - label: COLORS
    value: '8'
  - label: SOUND
    value: Beeper (1 channel, 3 octaves)
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: '47.1 (W) x 37.5 (D) x 14.5 (H) (main unit) / Total weight: 24 Kg'
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Centronics, RS 232c
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: one or two 390 KB 5.25'' disk-drives
  - label: OS
    value: FDOS (Sharp OS), EOS 3.0 (European Operating System), CP/M or PROLOGUE
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in PSU
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: 2 x 1.2 MB 8'' floppy disc drives unit, Graphics card, 5 or 10 MB hard disc
  - label: PRICE
    value: Unknown
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  - hardware
  - emulators
  - links
  photos:
  - title: CP/M 2.2 BOX
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: CP/M 2.2 MANUAL & DISK
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: USER MANUALS
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: MONOCHROME VERSION
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  adverts:
  - title: 'GERMAN LEAFLET #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      "The high performance Computer System for practice-oriented applications."

      Courtesy of **www.sharpmz.org**
    image: null
  - title: 'GERMAN LEAFLET #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      "This flexibly expandable computer grows by the increase of business activities and the rising requirements."

      A reliable office computer, which can flexibly adapt to the business work, as it is essential for the office to execute resulting works promptly, correctly, and precisely.\
      A user-friendly conceived EDP-system like the MZ-3541 is essential, particularly for small to medium sized companies.\
      The MZ-3541 contributes for a substantial increase of the productivity in the office by the assumption of routine works. SHARP has designed the new MZ-3541 in such a way that it can be used for the most diverse resulting office works. And because multiple peripheral devices are available, the system can grow dynamically with the business activities.

      The MZ-3541 is the result of Sharp's extensive market study and ergonomics studies. The free mobile keyboard makes data input and the operation easier and allows for spatial conditions an adapted installation of the system possible.\
      Sharp's MZ-3541 - the complete system for the business data processing.

      Courtesy of **www.sharpmz.org**
    image: null
  - title: FRENCH LEAFLET
    subtitle: ''
    text: Speed serves business.
    image: null
  hardware:
  - title: FRENCH FDD UNIT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Instead of selling the original Sharp FDD unit, the Sharp French subsidiary (Sharp Burotype Machines) preferred to made their own unit. The case could hold up to 4 drives. The drives were Canon models.
    image: null
  - title: MZ 80P3 - DOT MATRIX PRINTER
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: MZ-P4 PRINTER
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: MZ-P6 PRINTER
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  emulators:
  - title: EMUZ-2000
    url: http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~object/
    platform: Windows
    text: SHARP MZ-80B / 2000 / 2200 emulator for Windows
  links:
  - title: Sharp Games
    url: http://sharpgames.atspace.com
    text: Some homebrew games in develoment for the MZ
  - title: The Sharp Users Club
    url: http://sharpusersclub.org
    text: Very useful web site done by the UK Sharp Users Club
  - title: www.sharpmz.org
    url: http://www.sharpmz.org
    text: THE website for all MZ fans !!
  comments:
  - author: Sparky (Australia)
    date: Monday 23rd April 2012
    text: We still have one of these that is still being used in 2012!!!
  - author: Ole Lunddahl ( )
    date: Saturday 5th November 2005
    text: This was second generation from Sharp on FDOS. I recall how impressed we were with how fast our financials software now ran. We used the basic. We were a small company with dozens of customers on the old model and this model, especially when they released it with harddisc, was sold to up to 100 customers (small businesses). Some of my collagues played with the CP/M which was cool but as we all know lost out to a poorer IBM-DOS... Using diskettes for production systems was interesting. I recall getting a call from a production baker at 2 am where it was clear the dust had settled on the floppy making it read/write with erros going into a loop... Very reliable machines and excellent finish.
  - author: david Underhill (Australia)
    date: Tuesday 9th November 2004
    text: In the late 1980's I worked for a company in Australiia that Gave away hundreds of the MZ-3500 in a deal that involved getting commisions from finance and insurance contracts written using our software. This computers were often still being used well into the 1990's .We also used pc-5000 & pc-7000 Sharp for the same program and deal. the software was 99.5% identical on all machines written in CBASIC from digital research and used ANSI control sequences for screen routines.
  related:
  - /museum/sharp-mz-2000
  - /museum/sharp-mz-2200
  - /museum/sharp-mz-2500
  - /museum/sharp-mz-2800
  - /museum/sharp-mz-5500-5600
  - /museum/sharp-mz-700
  - /museum/sharp-mz-800-mz-1500
  - /museum/sharp-mz-80a-mz-1200
  - /museum/sharp-mz-80b
  - /museum/sharp-mz-80c
  - /museum/sharp-mz-80k
  oc_id: 295
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230529182411/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=295
    date: '2023-05-29'
---

This computer was not compatible with the other MZ series. It was the succesor of MZ-3200 series

Sharp started to sell 5000 systems in Japan in November 1982 before selling it to the rest of the world where it didn't meet a large success because of its high selling price and numerous options.

---

**Örjan Smith** adds:\
My first own computer was a SHARP MZ-3541. I used it for many years.\
I had both EOS and FDOS, but no other applications. I never did understand EOS, which was menu-based. FDOS meanwhile offered a machine-code editor (which I sadly lacked documentation for) and a BASIC interpreter with a typical 80's style line editor (with which I performed miracles :).

The ports on the back (RS232 etc) where all of the card-edge variety for flat cables. The second port on the front to the right of the keyboard port is the light pen port. The graphics mode required an add-in graphics board (which I did not have), and I think that was also required to get at the 8 colours mentioned (I'm not sure though, I had a monochrome monitor). Without it, you could still produce 160x50 pixel graphics by use of 16 quarter-fill characters in text mode.

<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>