website/content/museum/philips-p2000-t-m.md

---
title: Philips P2000 T/M
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- Netherlands
years:
- '1980'
cpus:
- Z80
params:
  name: P2000 T/M
  image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_system_s1.jpg
  company: /companies/philips
  company_name: Philips
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: P2000 T/M
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Philips
  - label: TYPE
    value: Home Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Netherlands
  - label: YEAR
    value: March 1980
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Typewriter type - 74 keys with numeric keypad
  - label: CPU
    value: Z80
  - label: SPEED
    value: 2.5 MHz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: None
  - label: RAM
    value: 16 KB to 48 KB
  - label: VRAM
    value: 1 (T) or 2 (M) KB
  - label: ROM
    value: 4 KB + 16 KB in ROM cartridges
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 40 (T) or 80 (M) columns x 24 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: None
  - label: COLORS
    value: '7'
  - label: SOUND
    value: Built-in beeper - 1 channel
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 41 (W) x 47 (D) x 11 (H) cm
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: |-
      T version: TV aerial, RGB, Serial\
      M version: Monochrome composite video, Serial, FDD interface
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: Mini cassette drive (42 KB)
  - label: OS
    value: Philips JWSDOS, CP/M with extra card
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Various interfaces through the Bus slot
  - label: PRICE
    value: About 3000 Dutch guilders ($1375)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  photos:
  - title: LARGE VIEW
    subtitle: ''
    text: Large view of a French version
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_system_s2.jpg
  - title: TOP VIEW
    subtitle: ''
    text: The cartridge slots are covered by a sliding plastic lid.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_topview_s1.jpg
  - title: BOOT-UP SCREEN
    subtitle: ''
    text: A word processor cartridge - Text 2 - is inserted into the first cartridge slot.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_bootscreen_s1.jpg
  - title: LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_bothsides_s1.jpg
  - title: FRENCH & GERMAN KEYBOARDS
    subtitle: ''
    text: Notice that the German version is simply labelled P2000 although it's a 2000M version.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_frgerkeyboards_s1.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: Here the French version
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_keybcloseup_s1.jpg
  - title: MINI CASSETTE DRIVE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      This mini cassette drive is totally software controlled and acts as a slow floppy drive.\
      The mini cassette tape holds demo programs for the Text 2 cartridge.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_tapedrive_s1.jpg
  - title: REAR SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** External floppy drive unit connector\
      **(2)** Serial DB25 connector mainly intended for a printer\
      **(3)** RGB video output. Only available in the T version\
      **(4)** Monochrome composite video output (M version)\
      **(5)** TV aerial output. Only available in the T version.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_rearside_s1.jpg
  - title: 'OPENED #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: M version. The upper card is the FDD controller card.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_opened_s1.jpg
  - title: 'OPENED #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      One clearly see the 3 superimposed cards of the M system. From bottom to top:\
      • CPU card,\
      • Video card,\
      • FDD controller card.
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_inside_s1.jpg
  - title: CPU BOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Notice that all of the chips used for the video management in the T version have been removed in the M version.

      **(1)** Beeper\
      **(2)** Serial connector\
      **(3)** Z80 processor\
      **(4)** 4 KB ROM chip. A second ROM socket is available\
      **(5)** 16 KB 4116 RAM chips
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_inside_s3.jpg
  - title: M CARDS
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Additional cards of the M version.\
      • Floppy disc controller (bottom)\
      • Monochrome 80-column
    image: /media/museum/photos/philips_p2000m_cards_s1.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: SPANISH ADVERT (MAY 1982)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  comments:
  - author: Jacik (Spanje)
    date: Saturday 6th November 2021
    text: Has any-one a printercable for the P2000T to a parallel/centronics printer ?
  - author: James (Ireland)
    date: Wednesday 9th September 2020
    text: The P2000 whilst a good machine was primitive due to its teletext chip and expensive price but it did have some success in education in Holland.
  - author: Richard (Belgium)
    date: Friday 24th November 2017
    text: |-
      1982 My father worked as a employe at Philips and came home one day with a P2000.\
      We hade a lot of fun with it, and made my basic for computeing.\
      At that time there was a P2000 customar club at Philips Netherlands in Eindhoven.\
      We whent there and there was a proffesor, i believe his name was Klaas Koppinga, and he stated the fact that 256 kb of memory was a whole lot and good for the comming 10 or 20 years.
  - author: Ziemowit (Sweden)
    date: Wednesday 15th March 2017
    text: |-
      Some more information about those nice machines. I had the pleasure of owning 1½ Philips P2000M and 1 Philips P2000B. (Yes, I still have them in my cellar somewhere, although I do not know if they work anymore.)

      Both variants used the same look of green monitor/double floppy unit, but even if the monitor units looked identical down to connector to the machine they were not interchangeable between the models. The diskettes were of same physical size and the diskette stations had identical looks, but the diskettes were not interchangeable either. The P2000M looked like on the images on this site, but the P2000B was a different animal: the keyboard was separate from the CPU box, and the CPU box was rectangular, same color as the P2000M brownish, but it had no mini-cassette station - only the power button, connector to keyboard, RS232 for a printer and connector for the monitor and floppy disks, if I remember correctly. Internally the P2000B machine was built around a bus of some kind...

      The P2000M could boot into Word processing (saving of documents on tape), Basic or UCSD p-system (UCSD Pascal), depending on installed cartridge. The P2000B could only boot into UCSD p-system, probably because I just had this one cartridge. Needless to say, cartridges looked identical but were not interchangeable between machines.

      I have not found any information about P2000B on the net at all. It seems like as if the machine never existed, but I have one.
  - author: Matthias
    date: Sunday 16th November 2014
    text: |-
      What is a good selling price for one of these?\
      And what is a good buying price?
  - author: Matthias (Nederland)
    date: Sunday 16th November 2014
    text: |-
      Voor hoeveel gaan Philips P2000T normaal gesproken?\
      Wat is een goede verkoopprijs?\
      En inkoopprijs?
  - author: Laios Palingas ($$917$$$955$$$955$$$940$$$948$$$945$)
    date: Thursday 18th September 2014
    text: I''m interested droop
  - author: droop (the netherlands)
    date: Monday 4th August 2014
    text: i have 1 P2000 T for sale
  - author: Joop Klok
    date: Sunday 13rd April 2014
    text: Ik heb een P2000 te koop. serienummer 94, een van de eerste dus. met de originele handleidingen en vele extra''s
  - author: Jac Goudsmit
    date: Sunday 5th August 2012
    text: |-
      The video chip used in the P2000T computers was the same as the chip that Philips used in Teletext decoders inside TV''s. That meant that text was well readable and some character-based graphics were possible. This made the computer popular in public displays in places such as airports. But just like Teletext, switching from text to graphics was done with a special hidden character on the screen that would, itself, take up one character position, so mixing text and graphics was limited.

      The keyboard was based on the keyboards that Philips made at the time for terminals and workstations, which had a reputation of being very robust but nevertheless very comfortable to type on.
  - author: AndiP
    date: Sunday 15th May 2011
    text: |-
      Hello,\
      I search the manuals for the P2000T to download in german or english.

      Thanks Andreas
  - author: paul walker (manchester uk)
    date: Sunday 29th August 2010
    text: i have one of these in my loft if you are interested in it
  oc_id: 1042
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604041908/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1042
    date: '2023-06-04'
---

The P2000 desktop series was the first Philips attempt to penetrate the home computer market. It was released in March 1980 in two version, the P2000M and the P2000T.

The main difference lied in the video interface. The T version, aimed at home and educational use, could be connected to either a standard TV set or a special RGB monitor. The M version, more professional, had an additional 80-column card allowing to connect a monochrome composite monitor. This version shipped with a monitor cabinet also housing a dual 5.25" floppy drive.

The P2000 was a robust and well conceived machine. There was no built-in language but only a 4 KB ROM holding system basic and I/O routines. Two cartridges slots allowed to add ROM programs (slot 1) or interface cards (slot 2) like a modem or a parallel printer interface.

Programs and data could be stored through the built-in mini cassette drive which was seen by the user as a floppy drive with automatic search for a program (CLOAD command) or free space (CSAVE). A command also allowed to display the directory of a cassette tape.

The P2000 didn't meet a great success in Europe, except in the Netherlands, its country of origin (although the machine was made in Austria) where the very active Philips user group provided lots of original software and hardware extensions like CP/M or disk drive controller cards. The P2000 was also widely used in Dutch and German schools.

**J. Frijling** (Netherlands) reports:\
The P2000 was initially meant for office use. Since a lot of other manufactures made home computers, Philips desided to put it on the home computer market. By the graphics you can see that it is a professional computer. If you wanted to do other than graphics, this was a powerful computer. Back then, this computer had already a RS232!! A novelty in those days. Because of that, it was widly used in the HAM-radio and hobby circuits. The 1st model came out with 16kb. You could add another 16kb as an internal extensionboard. Later came 64kb, although for basic you could only use 40kb, 64, 80 and 102kb. Above 40kb you could use it for bankswitching.\
The best part of all was that everything was protected by buffers, unlike the Commodore, who could easily be damged when wron connected! Unfortunatly the majority went for the better graphics.\
Later major improvements were made such as Highres graphics, inbuild 720kb FDD for model T, memory extension & lots more. I enjoyed this machine very much and recently I used it to improve my morsecode speed!

<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>