 An Epson QX-10 with RX-80 printer | |
| Manufacturer | Epson |
|---|---|
| Release date | 1983 |
| Introductory price | £1735 (U.K., 1984); 1990 FF (France, January 1988)[dubious – discuss].[1] |
| Media | Floppy disk[1] |
| Operating system | CP/M or TPM-III (CP/M-80 compatible) |
| CPU | Zilog Z80 @ 4 MHz |
| Memory | 64 or 256 KB of RAM |
| Storage | 340 KB 5.25" disk-drives[1] |
| Display | 80 x 24 text mode, 640 x 400 pixels monochrome[1] |
| Graphics | NEC μPD7220 |
| Sound | Beeper[1] |
| Power | 100 Watts (Built-in PSU)[1] |
| Dimensions | 50.8 cm x 30.4 cm x 10.3 cm[1] |
| Mass | 9.4 kg (computer), 5.5 kg (monitor), 2.5 kg (keyboard)[1] |
The Epson QX-10 is a microcomputer running CP/M or TPM-III (CP/M-80 compatible) which was introduced in 1983. It was based on a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, running at 4 MHz, provided up to 256 KB of RAM organized in four switchable banks, and included a separate graphics processor chip (μPD7220) manufactured by NEC to provide advanced graphics capabilities. In the USA and Canada, two versions were launched; a basic CP/M configuration with 64 KB RAM and the HASCI configuration with 256 KB RAM and the special HASCI keyboard to be used with the bundled application suite, called Valdocs. TPM-III was used for Valdocs and some copy protected programs like Logo Professor. The European and Japanese versions were CP/M configurations with 256 KB RAM and a graphical BASIC interpreter.
The machine had internal extension slots, which could be used for extra serial ports, network cards or third party extensions like an Intel 8088 processor, adding MS-DOS compatibility.
Rising Star Industries was the primary American software vendor for the HASCI QX series. Their product line included the TPM-II and III operating system, Valdocs, a robust BASIC language implementation, a graphics API library used by a variety of products which initially supported line drawing and fill functions and was later extended to support the QX-16 color boards, Z80 assembler, and low level Zapple machine code monitor which could be invoked from DIP switch setting on the rear of the machine.