website/content/museum/luxor-abc-80.md

---
title: Luxor ABC 80
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- Sweden
years:
- '1978'
cpus:
- Z 80
params:
  name: ABC 80
  image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_system_s1.jpg
  logo: /media/museum/logos/luxor_abc80_logo.gif
  company: /companies/luxor
  company_name: Luxor
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: ABC 80
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Luxor
  - label: TYPE
    value: Home Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Sweden
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1978'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: Luxor Basic
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full-stroke 55 keys
  - label: CPU
    value: Z 80
  - label: SPEED
    value: 3 MHz
  - label: RAM
    value: 16 KB (up to to 32 KB)
  - label: ROM
    value: 16 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 40 x 24 (ViewData and Teletext compatible)
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 78 x 72
  - label: COLORS
    value: Monochrome
  - label: SOUND
    value: 1 channel - Built-in speaker
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: V24 / RS232
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: Optional 2 x 5.25'' disk-drives
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Unknown
  - label: PRICE
    value: From $1400
  tabs:
  - photos
  - hardware
  - emulators
  - links
  photos:
  - title: LEFT SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: The monitor was a modified TV set produced by Luxor. The receiver module was replaced with a second power supply unit which supplied power to the computer.
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_leftside_s1.jpg
  - title: COMPLETE SYSTEM
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Complete system with Power supply unit and Luxor tape recorder.\
      The power supply unit allowed to use a standard TV SET through the aerial plug. In addition to the supply unit, it contained a TV modulator and a loudspeaker.
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_completesystem_s1.jpg
  - title: FDD UNIT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Complete system with single or dual 5'' 160 KB floppy drive unit.
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_fddunit_1.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: Notice the specific Swedish characters.
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_keyboardcloseup_s1.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD & LOGO
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_keyboardlogo_s1.jpg
  - title: REAR SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** Tape recorder DIN plug\
      **(2)** Tape recorder remote control jack\
      **(3)** Power supply input and video output connector\
      **(4)** This sliding index card could be pulled from underneath the computer to get commands summary of the Basic language\
      **(5)** Z80 address and data lines bus connector, mainly intended for the floppy drive unit\
      **(6)** Serial RS232 DB9 connector\
      **(7)** Reset switch.
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_rear_s1.jpg
  - title: INSIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: The keyboard was made in Japan by Keytronic
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_inside_s1.jpg
  - title: MAIN BOARD EXPLAINED
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** Keyboard connector\
      **(2)** Z80 PIO Parallel Input/Output controller\
      **(3)** Z80 processor\
      **(4)** 4 x 4K ROM chips hold the Basic interpreter\
      **(5)** Video RAM chips 2 x 2114 (1K x 4 bit static RAM)\
      **(6)** 16 KB RAM chips. 8 x 4116 (16K x 1 bit)\
      **(7)** TI-76477 sound generator. While it was a fairly competent sound generator, most of the chip's control inputs were analogue and thus "prohibitively expensive" to interface to a computer in the optimal way. Instead, it was hard-wired to a latch, which gave it only 256 sound settings, half of which were silent.
    image: /media/museum/photos/luxor_abc80_mainboard_s1.jpg
  hardware:
  - title: ABC-821
    subtitle: Tape recorder
    text: The nice and sophisticated Luxor tape recorder with sensitive keys.
    image: /media/museum/hardware/luxor_abc80_taperecorder_s1.jpg
  emulators:
  - title: ABC 80 Emulator by Erik Isaksson
    url: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~exon/archive.html
    platform: MS DOS
    text: works also with Windows
  - title: WinABC80
    url: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~exon/archive.html
    platform: Windows
    text: ABC-80 emulator by Erik Isaksson
  - title: MESS
    url: http://www.mess.org
    platform: Multiplatform
    text: MESS also emulates the ABC-80 computer
  links:
  - title: Gorän Lundberg's web site
    url: http://www.hultsfred.org/luxor.htm
    text: Good information about Luxor computers (Swedish)
  comments:
  - author: Jørgen Jespersen (Denmark)
    date: Saturday 8th July 2017
    text: |-
      Well, the spec mentions sound, and claims it to be one channel.\
      The speaker monitored the input channel in the DIN connection to the tapedeck.\
      You could make a short with a resistor between output and input and generate one-bit sound. But that was a hack.
  - author: toto
    date: Sunday 7th August 2011
    text: I had one. I was 12years back then. If you asked for sqr(4) it said 2.002! I managed to run some c64 programs on it.
  - author: Rainer Fredrich (Germany)
    date: Tuesday 19th April 2011
    text: |-
      Another ebay auction achieved 234 Euro for an Luxor ABC80 with FDD and cassette recorder. See attached auction picture:\
      http://tinyurl.com/3f839pj
  - author: Rainer Fredrich (Germany)
    date: Sunday 17th October 2010
    text: |-
      A recently ebay auction achieved 78.88 Euro for an Luxor ABC80. See attached auction picture:\
      http://tinyurl.com/29kjtvr
  - author: Fredrick Heia Romstad (Norway)
    date: Wednesday 11th August 2010
    text: Hey! My dad havde this computer( Luxor adc800) and i want to know how much this computer can be sold for today.
  - author: Rickard (Sweden)
    date: Wednesday 14th July 2010
    text: 'Minor correction: The graphical resolution was 78 x 72 (not 78 x 75 as currently stated) as each of the 24 lines could hold 3 vertical pixels in graphics mode.'
  - author: mike (sweden)
    date: Sunday 6th February 2005
    text: |-
      hi!i want to know when the first swedish pc came?\
      and which was the first swedish school pc?
  - author: Mårten (Sweden)
    date: Friday 28th May 2004
    text: |-
      There was a "grass roots computer movement" in Sweden druing the beginning of the 80s when lay-men took evening classes to learn computers and programming (in BASIC).\
      Theese classes where not uncommonly held using ABC-80s. (Indeed such a course in 1983 was the first encounter of miy own with the wolrd of bits and bytes)
  - author: Leo (Hungary)
    date: Friday 31st January 2003
    text: Radiotechnic. Not Radotechnic. :) Never mind.
  - author: Képes Gábor (Hungary)
    date: Friday 31st January 2003
    text: |-
      There was a good Hungarian version of ABC-80 too. This is the BRG ABC80 (BRG = Radotechnic Factory of Budapest).\
      It was a great school-computer, in a metal case.\
      See: www.homecomputer.de\
      G.
  oc_id: 37
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604072542/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=37
    date: '2023-06-04'
---

In August 1978, first units of the "Advanced Basic Computer for the 1980s", in short ABC-80 left the Swedish Luxor factory.

A few months earlier, Luxor contracted with two other companies, Scandia Metric and Data Industrier AB (DIAB), to build the first totally Swedish computer. Scandia Metrics which had previous experience of computer based products designed the main board, DIAB manufactured the chips, while Luxor, one of the biggest TV set manufacturers, built the monitor, case and keyboard and assembled the whole system in its assembly plant of Motala (Sweden, at the northeast shore of Swedens second largest sea, Vättern).

Despite the fact that the technology behind the ABC 80 was very simple and technical features wasn't better than US competitors, the ABC80 was a quality machine and became a great success among early Swedish computer enthusiasts, who had been waiting for a long time a real local computer. More than 10.000 computers were sold within two years. For six years, the ABC80 and then its sequel the ABC800, were by far the most sold and used personal computers in Sweden, for home, hobby, and especially education.

Many schools in Sweden had ABC 80 or [ABC 800](/museum/luxor-abc-800-series/) for the students. It was possible to connect together several ABC 80 thanks to a network called ABC NET.

In 1984, the ABC1600 and ABC9000, two Unix systems, were launched with the slogan "Who needs to be IBM compatible?"... They were the last Luxor computers produced.