The NEC PC-9801 (or the PC-98 for short) is a Japanese microcomputer manufactured by NEC. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. microcomputer is a Computer with a Microprocessor as its Central processing unit. is a Japanese multinational IT company headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan. It first appeared in 1982, and employed an 8086 CPU. The 8086 is a 16-bit Microprocessor chip designed by Intel and introduced on the market in 1978 which gave rise to the X86 architecture It ran at a clock speed of 5 MHz, with two µPD7220 display controllers (one for text, the other for video graphics), and shipped with 128 KB of RAM, expandable to 640 KB. The clock rate is the fundamental rate in cycles per second (measured in Hertz) at which a Computer performs its most basic operations such as adding two Its 8-color display had a maximum resolution of 640×400 pixels. Its successor, the PC-9801E, which appeared in 1983, employed an 8086-2 CPU, which could selectably run at a speed of either 5 or 8 MHz. The 8086 is a 16-bit Microprocessor chip designed by Intel and introduced on the market in 1978 which gave rise to the X86 architecture
In the 1980s and early 1990s, NEC dominated the Japan domestic PC market with more than 60% of the PCs sold as PC9801 or PC8801. The NEC PC-8801 system was introduced by the NEC Corporation in 1981 and was an early Zilog Z80 -based computer In 1990, IBM Japan introduced the DOS/V OS which enabled to display Japanese text on ordinary IBM PC/ATs' VGA adapter. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology DOS/V was a Japanese computing initiative starting in 1990 to allow PCs to handle double-byte Japanese text via software alone An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination The IBM Personal Computer/AT, more commonly known as the IBM AT and also sometimes called the PC AT or PC/AT, was IBM 's second-generation The term Video Graphics Array ( VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread After that, the decline of the PC98 began. The PC-9801's last successor was the Celeron-based PC-9821Ra43 (with a clockspeed 433MHz), which appeared in 2000. The Celeron brand is a range of X86 CPUs from Intel targeted at budget/value Personal computers with the motto "delivering great quality
FreeBSD/pc98 runs on PC-9801s equipped with an Intel 80386 or compatible. FreeBSD is a Unix-like free Operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD branch through
Software for the PC98 generally ran from program and data disks (Disk 0 & 1) or (A & B), and NEC did not have a strong GUI to go up against Microsoft's Windows 95 when it took Japan's PC market by storm. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. NEC's decision to work with Microsoft to offer a PC98 compatible version of Windows 95 could be seen as the first step towards the 9800 series computer's downfall, as consumers were no longer required to have an NEC-built system to run software designed for Windows.
The PC98 is different from the IBM PC in many ways; for instance, it uses its own 16 bit C-Bus instead of the ISA bus; BIOS, I/O port addressing, memory management, and graphics output are also different. In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs Memory-mapped I/O ( MMIO) and port I/O (also called port-mapped I/O or PMIO) are two complementary methods of performing Input/output However, localized MS-DOS or Windows will still run on PC-9801s. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft.
Seiko Epson manufactured PC-9801 clones, as well as compatible peripherals. or Epson, is a Japanese company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of inkjet, dot matrix and Laser printers scanners
As a game platform
The PC9801 had thousands of game titles designed for it, many of which did not require fancy graphics but made creative use of the system's limitations (it was originally designed as a business machine) to great commercial success. Despite having hardware specifications far inferior to the Fujitsu FM Towns and Sharp X68000 personal computers, the massive install base and steady flow of game titles (in particular "dōjin" style dating sims and RPGs) for the "Kyuu-Hachi" ("9-8" in Japanese) kept it as the favored platform for PC game developers in Japan until the rise of the DOS/V clones. is a Japanese company specializing in Semiconductors Computers ( Supercomputers Personal computers, servers, Telecommunications The FM Towns (commonly spelled FM-Towns, FM TOWNS, or FM-TOWNS) system is a Japanese PC The Sharp X68000, often referred to as the X68k, is a home computer released only in Japan by the Sharp Corporation. often romanized as doujin, is a general Japanese term for a group of people or friends who share an interest activity hobbies or achievement Dating sims (or dating simulations) are a Video game subgenre of Simulation games usually Japanese with romantic elements A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities
In this way the PC9801 might be seen as the Japanese equivalent of the IBM PC (and its successful battle against the Amiga), except that NEC kept much of its hardware and platform proprietary or under license (until the bitter end), so while it had a virtual monopoly in the Japan market, later IBM PC clones with DOS/V and Windows from companies such as Hitachi and Panasonic that did not require such license fees (like Epson's 98 clones) flooded the market and took the NEC giant down. The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. The proprietary technology that was NEC's strength turned into its weakness as its competitors could use off-the-shelf technology to build cheaper IBM PC clones at a time when NEC was charging much steeper prices for its PC9800 series computers.
Emulators popular for the PC9801 today include T98-NEXT, NekoprojectII(np2), and ANEX 86.
See also
- Category:NEC PC-9801 games