website/content/museum/enterprise-64-128.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Enterprise 64 / 128	Computers	Home Computer	United Kingdom	1985	Zilog Z80A	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos screenshots emulators links docs videos oc_id source Enterprise 64 / 128 /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_system_s1.jpg /companies/enterprise Enterprise label value NAME Enterprise 64 / 128 label value MANUFACTURER Enterprise label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1985 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE IS-Basic (ROM cartridge) label value KEYBOARD Complete keyboard with function keys and built-in joystick label value CPU Zilog Z80A label value SPEED 4 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR NICK (video), DAVE (sound) label value RAM Enterprise 64 : 64 KB (50 KB available)\ Enterprise 128 : 128 KB label value VRAM 64 KB label value ROM 32 KB label value TEXT MODES 40 x 24 / 80 x 32-28 / 84 x 64 label value GRAPHIC MODES Eight graphic modes, max : 672 x 512 (2 col), most used : 256 x 160 (16 col) label value COLORS 256 (simultaneously in the mode 180 x 80) label value SOUND 3 channels + 1 noise channel, 8 octaves label value SIZE / WEIGHT 40 x 27 x 2,5 cm label value I/O PORTS RGB Video / Audio output, Expansion port, Tape Interface, Joystick (2), Cardridge slot, RS432 (Serial/Net), TV output, Power input, Printer label value BUILT IN MEDIA none label value OS IS-DOS, EXDOS label value POWER SUPPLY External PSU label value PRICE Unknown photos software emulators links docs videos 165 title subtitle text image ENTERPRISE 64 On top of its advanced features the Enterprise had a nice design and good quality keyboard, even if one can reproach a little 'toyish' feel for the keyboard and joystick. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_system_s2.jpg title subtitle text image ENTERPRISE 128 Little riddle: Apart from the Enterprise label, what is the only external difference between an Enterprise 64 and a 128?\ See the next picture... /media/museum/photos/enterprise_128_system_s1.jpg title subtitle text image BOTH MODELS So, the only difference is... the joystick cap color ;-) Green for the 64, grey for the 128. In fact there is another difference between these two models, the 128 has a German keyboard, The 64 is a UK version. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_128_systems_s1.jpg title subtitle text image SIDES VIEW Notice the expansion connector on the right side, intended for the (vaporware?) dual floppy drive unit, and the ROM cartridge slot on the left side. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_sides_s1.jpg title subtitle text image CLOSE-UP The joystick replaces arrow keys in the Basic editor and wordprossor, it seems to be a bit fragile for action games though. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_closeup_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR CONNECTORS **(1)** Reset switch\ **(2-3)** Joystick connectors\ **(4)** printer connector\ **(5)** Serial or network connector\ **(6)** Jacks allowing to connect up to 2 tape recorders\ **(7)** RGB output connector\ **(8)** TV aerial jack\ **(9)** External AC adaptor jack. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_rearcon_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 64'S MAINBOARD The delay in the Enterprise launch was primarily due to design difficulties with the two custom circuits which provide the Entreprise with powerful graphic and sound features. The general design of the unit is of good quality. **(1)** First custom IC, called Nick, from its designer's name. Controls the powerful graphic features. A rudimentary heat sink covers it\ **(2)** Second custom IC, called Dave. Manages 4 sound channels and 8 octaves.\ **(3)** Expansions port, mainly intended to connect the (vaporware ?) double floppy drive unit\ **(4)** 32 KB ROM chip. Holds the Wordprocessor program\ **(5)** Z80-A microprocessor running at 4 Mhz, here a SGS version\ **(6)** 64 Kb. RAM, stored in eigth 4164 chips (64000 cells x 1 bit)\ **(7)** Keyboard connectors. Notice also the smal loudspeaker, fortunately, an Hi-Fi sound output connector is provided\ **(8)** ROM cartridge connector, mainly used by the Basic language cartridge.\ **(9)** Power regulators heat sink. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_mainboard_s2.jpg title subtitle text image 128'S MAINBOARD The mainboard is exactly the same as the 64 version, a piggy-back 64 KB RAM expansion card has simply been added. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_128_mainboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image PIGGY-BACK RAM CARD /media/museum/photos/enterprise_128_mainboard_s2.jpg title subtitle text image MANUALS Installation, IS-BASIC and wordprocessor manuals, and IS-BASIC cartridge. /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_manuals_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 64'S BOX /media/museum/photos/enterprise_64_box_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 128'S BOX /media/museum/photos/enterprise_128_box_s1.jpg title subtitle text image SOME ENTERPRISE PROGRAMS /media/museum/photos/enterprise_128_programs_s1.jpg title subtitle text image BOOT SCREEN /media/museum/software/enterprise_boot_ss.gif title subtitle text image TYPE The built-in wordprocessor /media/museum/software/enterprise_type_ss.gif title subtitle text image 16 COLOURS GRAPHICS /media/museum/software/enterprise_16colours_ss.gif title subtitle text image AIRWOLF Spectrum adaptation /media/museum/software/enterprise_airwolf_ss.gif title subtitle text image ARC OF YESOD Spectrum adaptation /media/museum/software/enterprise_arcofyesod_ss.gif title subtitle text image BEACH-HEAD Spectrum adaptation /media/museum/software/enterprise_beachhead_ss.gif title subtitle text image CHAIN /media/museum/software/enterprise_chains_ss.gif title subtitle text image DEFENDER OF THE CROWN SHOW Demo /media/museum/software/enterprise_doc-show_ss.gif title subtitle text image FRUITS /media/museum/software/enterprise_fruits_ss.gif title subtitle text image PERROQUET /media/museum/software/enterprise_perroquet_ss.gif title subtitle text image GASTON LAGAFE /media/museum/software/enterprise_gaston_ss.gif title subtitle text image SINUS Demo /media/museum/software/enterprise_sinus-demo_ss.gif title subtitle text image SMALL DEMO /media/museum/software/enterprise_smalldemo_ss.gif title subtitle text image THE ABYSS /media/museum/software/enterprise_the-abyss_ss.gif title url platform text EP128EMU http://ep128emu.sourceforge.net MS DOS Free, portable emulator of the Enterprise 128 with C sources title url platform text ep32 http://web.axelero.hu/egzo/ep/ Windows ep32 is a heavily modified version of kevin thacker's ENTER emulator title url platform text Multi-Machine Emulator http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/4428/ Windows Emulates the Enterprise title url platform text NEMESYS (NEw Machine Emulator SYStem) http://nemesys.lgb.hu/ Unix / Linux This multi-system emulator, can emulate the Enterprise. Project is in VERY early stage at the moment (May 2003). title url platform text Penelope http://emil.alarmix.org/tombox/ Other platform New emulator for 32bits OS, currently (july 2001) in early development phase title url text Enterprise 128 KB page http://enterprise.8bit.hu/ Nice hungarian page with a lot of online documentation ! title url text Enterprise Forever http://enterpriseforever.com/ The best forum about Enterprise (English part exists also) and many files to download title url text EPTE home by Daniel Stocker http://epte.z80.hu/ You need that ! EPTE is a virtual tape which allows you load software from your PC to your Enterprise. title url text Z80 Számítógép Múzeum http://www.ep128.hu/ Hungarian site dedicated to the Enterprise and ZX Spectrum title url cover text ENTERPRISE PROGRAMMING GUIDE http://enterprise.8bit.hu/document/books.html /media/museum/docs/couvs/enterprise_programming_guide.jpg [**ENTERPRISE PROGRAMMING GUIDE**](http://enterprise.8bit.hu/document/books.html)written by Enterprise Computers Ltd  compiled/archived by Zozosoft (scan) / gafz (pdf)\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Enterprise Hungarian website](http://enterprise.8bit.hu/) title url cover text ENTERPRISE SET UP GUIDE http://enterprise.8bit.hu/document/books.html /media/museum/docs/couvs/doc_enterprise_set-up-guide.jpg [**ENTERPRISE SET UP GUIDE**](http://enterprise.8bit.hu/document/books.html)written by Enterprise Computers Ltd  type of document : PDF\  size : 9,9 MB\  source : [Enterprise Hungarian website](http://enterprise.8bit.hu/) title url cover text ENTERPRISE EXPANDABLE DISK OPERATING SYSTEM http://enterprise.8bit.hu/document/books.html /media/museum/docs/couvs/enterprise_exdos_manual.jpg [**ENTERPRISE EXPANDABLE DISK OPERATING SYSTEM**](http://enterprise.8bit.hu/document/books.html)written by Enterprise Computers Ltd  compiled/archived by Zozosoft (scan) / gafz (ocr)\  type of document : HTML\  source : [Enterprise Hungarian website](http://enterprise.8bit.hu/) title url text Enterprise 128 TV commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp6wc6YJpn4 Length: 43 s 153 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230314222731/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=153 2023-03-14

The Enterprise 64 was a very long-awaited computer, two years between its announcement and its marketing! It changed its name a lot of times: its first name was Elan 64, then Flan, lastly Enterprise.

It has great features, which wasn't found on all other home computers, like its interfaces, great graphics and sounds capacities provided by two special custom chips called "Nick" and "Dave".

The BASIC Interpreter is supplied on a ROM cartridge and can be easily replaced with any other language. This BASIC is a very powerful structured basic with great graphic commands and can store several programs simultaneously in RAM.

It has a small word processing in ROM and up to 32 computers can be linked together.

But despite its great characteristics and all its interfaces, the Enterprise 64 was a flop in the marketplace.

Several months later, a new model was launched: the Enterprise 128, which was nothing more than an Enterprise 64 with 128 KB RAM.
Unsold stocks of these systems (nearly all :-)), were sold to East-Europeans countries, and especially Hungary where it met great success. Thus, most nowadays Enterprise activity comes from here.

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Kjetil T. Homme specifies:
The editing of the word processors was exploited during programming -- you could scroll up and down and edit the code with ease. You could hold down shift while moving the joystick to move by whole pages and quickly scan through the code. Contemporary computers required you to write LIST 100-200 so it fit on the current screen, and then you could move your cursor to edit those lines. The comparative ease of editing made the line numbers in BASIC much less of a hassle, which contributed to its higher level feel compared to other BASIC dialects.
EXDOS was the DOS which was in the ROM of the floppy disc adapter. It was sort of CP/M compatible, so you could run classics like WordStar and SuperCalc. It was surprisingly modern and used FAT12 as the filesystem, so I could easily transport files between my Enterprise and my Atari ST. I could even use the same DS/DD Cumana floppy drive, since it used a standard Shugart interface (the ST needed a converter cable to a DIN plug).
The RS432 serial interface could in theory handle greater speeds than RS232 (with which it is backwards compatible).

Andrew J King reports:
The Enterprise case was designed by UK product designer Geoff Hollington, subsequently more famous for his work for Herman Miller office furniture.