#### Back to index | # Info for pcw8256

#### Amstrad PCW8256/8512/9512/9512+/10

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These machines were designed primarily for wordprocessing (hence the name
"Personal Computer Word processor"), but are capable of a lot more.
The original PCW8256 system had a green screen monitor, with 2 3" disc
drives mounted vertically in it, a keyboard and a special printer. (The CPU and other
hardware was also contained in the base of the monitor)
Later models changed the case design, but also allowed the use of any printer that
was available. (The original 8256 had a proprietary printer and interface).
The hardware is simple, a Z80 running at 4Mhz, slowed to 3.3 with wait states, an Amstrad
ASIC custom chip for driving the display (2 colours, 720x256 in PAL, 720x200 in NTSC), a
beep for sound, and a NEC765 floppy disc controller.
The boot-program is contained on the printer chip, and is enabled at power-on or reset.
The data is passed through a Amstrad custom ASIC chip, and is executed by the Z80. The
program is simple, and just loads track 0, side 0,sector &01 to &f000 where it is then
executed at &f010. (The first 16 bytes appear to contain some format parameters which
are used to initialize CPM). I don't own a PCW machine so I don't know the exact display
that the PCW shows on boot-up.
AFAIK, no dumps are available for this program. The MESS driver uses a program coded by
myself. This program waits for a key to be pressed and then starts the boot procedure. If
an error occurs, the screen will flash 6 times, and then it will repeat the procedure. If
all is well, you will see some lines appear on the screen, and the boot will continue.
The original computer came with CP/M and Locoscript (a special word processor).
Since it was able to use CP/M there was a lot of public domain and CP/M programs available
that would run on it.
A few games were written for it, two of these are "Head Over Heels" and "Hitchhikers Guide
to the Galaxy".
THIS SYSTEM REQUIRES A BOOT DISK TO RUN!

created on Wed May 15 07:18:19 2002