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| Manufacturer | Fujitsu |
|---|---|
| Type | Personal Computer |
| Release date | November 1982; 41 years ago (1982-11) |
| Introductory price | ¥126,000 ($500) |
| Discontinued | April 1984 (1984-04) (original model)[1] |
| Units sold | 220,000 (original model)[1] |
| Media | Cassette tape, 51⁄4-inch floppy disk |
| Operating system | Fujitsu Disk Basic, OS-9, FLEX |
| CPU | 2× MBL 68B09 clocked at 2MHz |
| Memory | 64KB RAM, 48KB VRAM, 48KB ROM |
| Display | 8 colours at 640 × 200 pixel resolution |
| Graphics | MBL 68B09 |
| Sound | AY-3-8910, YM2203 (FM77AV onwards) |
| Input | Keyboard, joystick |
| Dimensions | 43.2 × 28.5 × 10.2 |
| Mass | 4.5 kg |
| Predecessor | FM-8 |
| Successor | FM Towns |
The FM-7 ("Fujitsu Micro 7") is a home computer created by Fujitsu.[2][3] It was first released in 1982 and was sold in Japan and Spain.[4] It is a stripped-down version of Fujitsu's earlier FM-8 computer,[2] and during development it was referred to as the "FM-8 Jr.".
Although it was designed to be a cut-down version of the FM-8 (with the FM-7 costing 126,000 yen, compared to 218,000 yen for the FM-8[2][5]), most notably removing the (expensive) bubble memory technology, the FM-7 was given a more advanced AY-3-8910 sound chip capable of three voice sound synthesis, leading to a strong uptake among the hobbyist computer market in Japan and making it a more popular system than the FM-8.
The FM-7 primarily competed with the NEC PC-8801 and Sharp X1 series of computers in the early 1980s. It was succeeded by the FM-77 series of computers in 1984, which featured backwards compatibility with the FM-7. The FM-77 series was later succeeded by the 32-bit FM Towns in 1989.
The FM-7 is based around the 6809 chip, which was also used in home computers such as the TRS-80 Color Computer and Dragon 32/64, as well as several arcade games.
The included "F-BASIC" is an enhanced version of the Color BASIC language used on the TRS-80 Color Computer. Changes include a different character set that includes katakana and a few kanji, the ability to have graphics appear on the default text screen, and several new commands such as BEEP, CONNECT, MON, SYMBOL, INTERVAL, MERGE, RANDOMIZE, SWAP, and TERM. There are also strings for TIME$ and DATE$, which access a temporary built-in internal clock, though if the power is turned off, the time and date are lost.
While F-Basic has commands that Color BASIC does not, most commands featured in both versions of the language operate in exactly the same fashion.
While the BASIC EDIT command works the same as on Color BASIC, the cursor position is important on the FM-7: there is a small keypad on the upper-right of the FM-7 with cursor-control keys (arrows, INSERT & DELETE), and wherever the user decides to position the cursor, it will move it there and affect whatever is underneath it.
Both Microsoft and Fujitsu share the copyright on the BASIC.
The FM-7 was sold in Spain as the Secoinsa FM-7. Secoinsa was a electronics supplier to Telefonica, the main Spanish telecom, and was eventually transformed into Fujitsu Spain. It retained an independent R&D department until Fujitsu's 1990 acquisition of ICL.[8] Secoinsa adapted the FM-7 for the Spanish market and specifically for the Spanish government's push towards computers in school, the "Athena Project".[9]
There were several models of the computer:
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