website/content/museum/msx-turbo-r.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	params
MSX Turbo R	Computers	Home Computer	Japan	1991	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos emulators links related oc_id source MSX Turbo R /media/museum/photos/msx_turbo_r.jpg /companies/msx MSX label value NAME MSX Turbo R label value MANUFACTURER MSX label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Japan label value YEAR 1991 label value CPU R800 - Z80A downwards compatible but 5 to 10 times faster than a Z80 label value SPEED 3.579545 MHz (Z80 mode), 7.16 MHz (R800 mode - equivalent to a 28.64MHz Z80 CPU) 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 from 256 KB to 512 KB + 32 KB SRAM up to 4 MB with some soldering label value VRAM 128 KB (up to 192 KB) label value ROM 80 KB (Basic) 80KB (MSX Disk Basic) 16KB (MSX-MUSIC Basic) 496KB (MSX View) 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 / 131072 label value SOUND AY-8910 + YM-2413 chip (9 channels of music) + PCM = 13 available channels! label value SIZE / WEIGHT 425(W) x 292(D) x 89(H)mm / 3.4Kg label value I/O PORTS Joystick(2), Cartridge(2), RGB, Composite Video, Centronics, External Audio, MIDI (GT version) label value BUILT IN MEDIA Built-in 3.5'' disk drive label value OS MSX-BASIC by default, MSX-DOS when booted. The 32KB SRAM of the GT also doubles as a bootable RAM drive label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PRICE ST: $87,800 Yen (Japan, 1990)\ GT: $99,800 Yen (Japan, 1990) photos emulators links 300 title subtitle text image THE PANASONIC FS A1ST /media/museum/photos/a1st.jpg 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! /museum/panasonic-fs-a1-gt /museum/panasonic-fs-a1-st 290 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230606191359/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=290 2023-06-06

Here is the last MSX computer ever made. It is the successor of the MSX 2+ and thus has many characteristics in common. New features include: a new PCM sound chip which can produce digitized sound up to 44 KHz (in assembly language) and a new Z80 downward compatible R800 processor. The user can select the CPU (Z80 or R800) by software.

Panasonic was the only company to produce MSX 2 Turbo R systems: the FS A1. Two versions of the FS A1 were presented, the FS A1 ST and the FS A1 GT. The GT has 512 KB RAM, a MIDI interface and MSX View in ROM (MSX View is the Graphic User Interface compatible with MSX-DOS).

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 hi-res card (Yamaha V9990) with lot of hardware sprites and IDE or SCSI interfaces.

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.

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.