Year of production: 1985-98 (!) 8 million units!

Schneider (Amstrad) PCW 9512 word processor computer

PCW= Personal Computer Wordprocessor The Amstrad PCW computer family, primarily a word processor computer with a printer, was introduced in 1985. These machines ran a CP / M operating system. The Amsoft division of Amstrad supplied software and consumables for the Amstrad computers. It was an extremely successful model.

The system was supplied with the LocoScript software on disk, developed by Locomotive Software Dr. Logo and the Basic that were called Mallard Basic. A few years later, they completed the software supply with the LocoMail, LocoFile and  LocoScript 2 software.

Type PCW 8256 / 8512 Manufacturer    Amstrad

Area of use     Professional Computer

Country    United Kingdom

Start of production     September 1985

Built-in language    Mallard Basic

Keyboard    Mechanical keyboard with numeric keypad end special edit keys (COPY,CUT,PASTE,PRINT,etc.). 8 function keys.

CPU      Zilog Z80 A CPU speed   

The CPU is running at 4 MHz, but is slowed down by the internal clock to 3,4 Mhz

CO-Processzor   

Video : Amstrad ASIC custom chip

DD controller : NEC 765

RAM      256 KB (16 banks of 16 kb each)

Text mode      90 x 32

Graphic mode    720 x 256 (PAL), 720 x 200 (NTSC)

Colours    monochrome (black & green)

Tone      Beeper, 1 channel

I/O Ports    Z80 Bus, Parallel Built-in data store 1 Hitachi 3″ disk-drive (160 kb/side)

operating system    CP/M, CP/M+ Power supply unit   

PSU built-in

Peripherals      Printer, parallel/Centronics interface