website/content/museum/cce-mc-1000.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
CCE MC 1000	Computers	Home Computer	Brazil	1985	Zilog Z80A	name image company company_name specs tabs photos adverts hardware emulators links docs comments oc_id source MC 1000 /media/museum/photos/cce_mc1000_4.jpg /companies/cce CCE label value NAME MC 1000 label value MANUFACTURER CCE label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Brazil label value YEAR February 1985 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Basic label value KEYBOARD 50 key rubber keyboard label value CPU Zilog Z80A label value SPEED 3.54 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Motorola MC 6847 (Graphics) + GI AY-3-8910 (Sound) label value RAM 16 KB (14618 bytes free under Basic), expandable to 64 KB label value VRAM 6 KB label value ROM 16 KB label value TEXT MODES 32 x 16 (80 columns with an external add-on, really another Motorola graphic chip) label value GRAPHIC MODES 128 x 96 (low resolution), 256 x 192 (hi resolution) label value COLORS 4 on low resolution, 2 on hi resolution label value SOUND 3 voices, 7 octaves + 1 noise channel label value I/O PORTS A expansion bus on the back to plug the RAM expansion, the printer port and, if it was delievered, the drive interface. It works like the Sinclair expansion buses. 2 x controller ports. Tape interface. Video output label value POWER SUPPLY External PSU - 9v DC + -o)- - label value PRICE Unknown photos adverts hardware emulators links docs title subtitle text image MC-1000 COLOR COMPUTER /media/museum/photos/cce_mc1000_2.jpg title subtitle text image NICE PICTURE Thanks to www.HomeComputer.de for this picture /media/museum/photos/cce_mc1000_3.jpg title subtitle text image COMPLETE /media/museum/photos/cce_mc1000_5.jpg title subtitle text image OUT OF THE BOX /media/museum/photos/cce_mc1000_6.jpg title subtitle text image REAR Power in (9v DC + -o )- - ) and expansion bus null title subtitle text image BOTTOM null title subtitle text image BOX /media/museum/photos/cce_mc1000_box.jpg title subtitle text image BOX #2 /media/museum/photos/cce_mc1000_box_2.jpg title subtitle text image BOX #3 null title subtitle text image BOX #4 null title subtitle text image BRAZILIAN ADVERT (1985) Thanks to [Museu da Computação e Informática - MCI](http://www.mci.org.br) for this picture. /media/museum/pubs/cce_mc1000_pub_1.jpg title subtitle text image DR-1000A Tape-recorder This is the dedicated tape-recorder for the MC-1000 from CCE. /media/museum/hardware/cce_mc1000_dr1000a_taperecorder_1.jpg title url platform text brMC-1000 http://www.700km.com.br/mundobizarro/brmc1000.php Other platform The first MC 1000 emulator ever by Ricardo Bittencourt (Java) ! title url text CCE MC1000 repository https://sites.google.com/site/ccemc1000/home Excellent website with a lot of information ! title url text MC-1000 CCE COLOR COMPUTER Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/mc1000/ title url text Segredos do MC-1000 http://www.700km.com.br/mundobizarro/mc1000.php Brazilian page dedicated to the MC-1000 title url text Victor Trucco MC1000 page http://www.victortrucco.com/Diversos/MC1000/MC1000 Hardware projects for MC1000 title url cover text MC1000 - MANUAL DE INSTRUÇÕES E BASIC http://www.datacassete.com.br/manuais/mc1000.htm /media/museum/docs/couvs/cce_mc1000_manual-de-instructions-basic.jpg [**MC1000 - MANUAL DE INSTRUÇÕES E BASIC**](http://www.datacassete.com.br/manuais/mc1000.htm)written by CCE  compiled/archived by Leonardo R. da Rosa ?\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.datacassete.com.br](http://www.datacassete.com.br/) author date text Cláudio Sampaio (Brazil) Tuesday 13rd October 2020 The date is wrong, it was released before 1985. I was gifted that computer in my 11th birthday, which was in november 1984. author date text Claudio H. Picolo Saturday 3rd August 2013 Perhaps Rabbid RX-83 was a prototype project that Rabbid Computer bought from Samsung, but by contract they were unable to sale it on Asia, reason why they shown it on a fair on USA. VDI/GEM was about to make a partnership with Rabbid to produce in Hong Kong to sell it in Belgium in 1984, but CCE possibly appeared with a better offer and bought the entire project to sell it totally remodelled as MC-1000.\ OK... We have no proof that it occurred this way, but is a very good theory.\ Why?\ The dates match, no one knows ANY RX-83 or GEM-1000/Charlemagne user or even exist a ROM dump of these machines anywhere.\ Only the MC-1000 have good documentation, a software library and groups of users, even with all vaporware. author date text Aldrox (Brazil) Tuesday 4th December 2012 I have one of these computers. I was gifted it in 1986. It is still operational and inside its original packaging. It is quite a bizarre computer, indeed. It is for sale... anyone interested? Thx. author date text Emerson José Silveira da Costa (Belém - PA - Brazil) Monday 5th September 2011 Having seen screenshots from a SPC-1000 emulator, it''s not likely that MC-1000 is based on it. The screenshots show that the video processor (MC6847) is wired in a much more complex way in SPC-1000. It uses an external ROM for lower case, some Korean, Chinese, Greek, block drawing $ miscellaneous characters. It mixes MC6847''s alphanumeric and semigraphic modes so that you can have different text colors and coloured block characters in the same screen. In MC-1000 we have only MC6847''s 64 built-in characters, and the video modes are accessed separately. MC-1000''s BASIC is based on Applesoft Basic (from Apple II)$ SPC-1000 is based on Microsoft Basic. SPC-1000 has function keys. MC-1000 has none. Besides the sharing of the processor trio (Z80 + MC6847 + AY-3-8910), the machines seem pretty different to me. author date text Todor DeOliveira (Brazil) Thursday 18th August 2005 This crazy machine wasn´t equipped with a ON/OFF switch or anything that would allow you to turn it on or off. This operation had to be done by pulling in or out the energy plug from the case, or the whole external PSU from the wall.... author date text Ricardo Bittencourt (Brazil) Tuesday 10th August 2004 I just released the first ever MC-1000 emulator.\ Get it here:\ http://www.700km.com.br/mundobizarro/brmc1000.php 331 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230328011755/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=331 2023-03-28

What a weird computer !! Though it has a lot of similarities with other computers of that time, it seems to be however an original Brazilian production, a kind of mix between several popular systems.

Its name MC-1000 is strangely close to MC-10 from Tandy. It uses the same video-controller (Motorola MC-6847) but Sound chipset (GI AY-3-8910) and CPU (Z80A) are different. The character set is almost identical, but keyboard layout and Basic statements are not the same (PLOT vs SET, LOAD vs CLOAD, HOME vs CLS, etc.)

Maybe the closest system would be the Samsung SPC-1000. It has the same CPU, Video processor and Sound processor ! But sadly nearly nothing is known about it... At first sight it doesn't look the same at all, but internaly there are very close.

Finally it is also strangely similar to the Charlemagne / GEM-1000 / Junior Computer from GEM, or the Rabbit RX83 computer which seem to be the same computer... and indeed they are !

A former CCE employee reports (Source) that the original design of the MC1000 was Chinese. A Chinese engineer/representative came to Brazil to present the project to CCE. It was not presented as a final product already in production, but as a prototype. Some partnership was effectively established between CCE and the Chinese factory for the production of the MC1000. He was not reverse engineered. There was a lot of development: Hardware adaptations (for PAL-M, for example, or to adapt components), case, keyboard design, visual identity, packaging, software… The engineering staff worked many months to finalize the product. For the ROM, CCE received very little: just the dump and an assembly listing without comments...

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Thanks to Cesar Cardoso for the following information :

BACKGROUND ON HISTORY: from 1976 to 1990-1992, Brazil had a market reserve policy on microcomputers and selected computing items, i.e. only Brazilian companies could manufacture these items. But most companies only copied foreign computers and only a small part of it created their own technology, like Scopus and a MS-DOS clone called SISNE.

This little monster was a genuine Brazilian computer! CCE was a electronics manufacturer known for their low prices and low quality products. They released Apple II and PC compatible machines, but developed their own computer, the MC-1000. Hardware-wise, it's close to a MSX, with some big project problems (the text mode, unsuitable for something more serious, and the printer port, which was external and sold separately).

The most heard word of this computer is "vaporware". CCE made a lot of them for this computer. The biggest of them all: disk drives. Hey, in 1985 disk drives was an essential peripheral of ANY computer - and CCE promised drives. Drives and CP/M - MC-1000 could have been a decent CP/M machine. They promised, promised... and never delivered. So people got tired of waiting and gave up on this computer.

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.