Subject: NEC APC III

From: "peter tremewen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 8 18:07:41 2003

Hi all,

        Been doing some more scrounging from the curbside, found an NEC APC
III. I thought at first it was just an XT style computer, but closer
inspection showed it was at least a little more unusual than that. The whole
inside of the system is filled up with descrete component boards pluged into a
coman bus system. I asume this is memory expansion, HDD and FDD drive. It was
significantly diferant from the standard XT hardware that I considered it was
at least worth a second look. If some one could give me some more info or
direct me to some long forgoten site with details of this machine I would
apreciate it. Otherwise I'll just "throw it on the pile" and keep it around
for good looks......

                Peter T.

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From: "Dr. Ido" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 8 18:08:30 2003

>apreciate it. Otherwise I'll just "throw it on the pile" and keep it around

I have a couple of them without keyboards so I can't do much with them.
It's MS-DOS based, but not PC compatible. 8Mhz 8086,
640x400 color display.  Mine have 720KB 5.25" floppy drives and 10MB hard
disks.  They did release a PC emulator card for them, but I don't think it
worked that well.  

Here in Australia they were quite popular is pharamacies.  I think some
company supplied a complete system consisting of the APC III, 2 printers
and the pharamacy software preloaded.  From memory there was an early
version of autocad that supported it's hires display. 

I think it's related to the PC9801 (only sold in Japan).  I have a 75Mhz
Pentium based NEC 9821 and it appears to have the same slots as the APC III.

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From: "peter tremewen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:52:46 2003

My system likewise lacks a keyboard, If anyone has some info on how I might
connect one up or otherwise comunicate with one it i'd be glad to hear it. I
wonder if there are some old systems sitting around gathering dust in the
back of some old chemist then??  I might make some enquiries in that
direction and see whatg happens.....

                Peter T.

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From: "Dr. Ido" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:52:53 2003

>direction and see whatg happens.....

I also have an NEC terminal that is based on the APC III, bought it to get
the keyboard for my APC IIIs.  The keyboard from the terminal uses
different character codes though.  The keyboard is recognised by the APC
III, but the characters don't match the keys pressed.  

The keyboard for my NEC 9821 has the same connector, but I haven't been
game to try plugging it in.

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From: peter tremewen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:53:00 2003

Thats definatly worth noting, I'll have to make sure I get the correct
Keyboard for the system then.....

        Peter T.

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From: "Dave Brown" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:53:20 2003

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From: "Dave Brown" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:53:27 2003

Peter et al--
I'll have a nose around- used to be an awful lot of APC-IIIs here- the
Telecom NZ fixed network is NEAX based (a line in electronic switches from
NEC) and the APC-IIIs were all over the place in the early days (15 plus
years ago) in use as terminals. But it's only recently the last of them have
been tossed out (probably still the odd one in service in reality!) in favor
of standard pc hardware. Those in use here all had CGA screens and either
dual floppies or (marvel of marvels!) 10/20Mb HDDs-- still probably some
docs about but only ever saw operating handbooks. Fairly sure I know where
there is still at least one keyboard---maybe two....

Dave Brown
Christchurch, NZ

PS- Guess what was supplied for use as a portable terminal-the 9801--used to
be lots of them about as well- I have one or two salted away-complete with
cassette tape units etc.
DB

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From: peter tremewen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:53:41 2003

Thanks,  I'd be very interested in a keyboard and further info in the form
of data.....    Please keep me posted....

                Peter T.

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From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:54:38 2003

> years ago) in use as terminals. But it's only recently the last of them have

That's how I got my APC III.  It was sitting unused in the telecom
equipment room of the juvenile detention center in the next county over.
They had several NEAX switches installed throughout the county.  I asked
about it and was told it was broken and could take it.  It turned out the
contrast was turned all the way down.

It's a very solid CP/M-86 machine.  I used it to successfully copy over
some files from 8" floppy to a PC over the serial port using PIP.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger                http://www.vintage.org

 * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

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From: "peter tremewen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 10 10:57:57 2003

Hi,
        Just another thought, does some one have a photo of an old APC III
keybaord?? I have a couple of keyboards here that are non IBM that have had
the conectors cut off, and one of them may be the keyboard to my machine. If
anyone could even basically describe what I should look for that should be
helpfull. At least I will know what I'm looking at even if I can't plug the
thing in.....

                Peter T.

> be lots of them about as well- I have one or two salted away-complete with
that well.