FM Towns
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
variant, built by Fujitsu
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
from February 1989 to the summer of 1997. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
applications and PC games
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
, but later became more compatible with regular PCs. In 1993, the FM Towns Marty
FM Towns Marty
The FM Towns Marty was a fifth-generation video game console released in 1993 by Fujitsu, exclusively for the Japanese market. It was the first 32-bit home video game system, and came complete with a built in CD-ROM drive and disk drive. It was based on the earlier FM Towns computer system Fujitsu...
was released, a gaming console compatible with the FM Towns games.
The name "FM Towns" is derived from the codename the system was assigned while in development, "Townes"; this was chosen as an homage to Charles Hard Townes, one of the winners of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
, following a custom of Fujitsu at the time to codename PC products after Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winners. The e in "Townes" was dropped when the system went into production to make it clear that it was to be pronounced "Towns" rather than "Tau-Ness", and the "FM", which stood for "Fujitsu Micro[computer]".
History
FujitsuFujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
, which had the best-selling 8-bit home computer FM-7
FM-7
FM-7 is a home computer released in 1982 in Japan.The Fujitsu FM-7 was Fujitsu's first entry into the Japanese home computer market, and for their debut computer, they chose to come out with a 6809-based personal computer very similar to Radio Shack's Color Computer.-Hardware:*Two MC 68B09 CPUs @...
, and the Fujitsu Micro 16s
Fujitsu Micro 16s
The Fujitsu Micro 16s was a business personal computer from Fujitsu that was launched in 1983, around the same time as the launch of the original IBM-PC/XT. The Micro 16s used a plug in microprocessor board, and two models were offered, an Intel 8086 and a Zilog Z80 expansion board...
PC in early 1980s in Japan, decided to release a new home computer after the FM-7 was overcome by NEC's PC-8801 computer. From this experience, Fujitsu learned that software sales drove hardware sales. In order to acquire usable software quickly, the new computer was to be based on Fujitsu's "FMR50" system architecture. The FMR50 system, released at 1986, was another x86/DOS-based computer similar to NEC's popular PC-9801
PC-9801
The NEC PC-9801, part of the PC-98 series, is a Japanese 16-bit microcomputer manufactured by NEC.- History :It first appeared in 1982, and employed an 8086 CPU. It ran at a clock speed of 5 MHz, with two µPD7220 display controllers , and shipped with 128 KB of RAM, expandable to 640 KB...
. The FMR50 computers were sold to moderate success in Japanese offices, particularly in Japanese government offices. There were hundreds of software packages available for the FMR, including Lotus 1-2-3, Wordstar, Multiplan, and dBASE III. With this basis of compatibility, the more multimedia-friendly FM Towns was born.
NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
's PC-9801
PC-9801
The NEC PC-9801, part of the PC-98 series, is a Japanese 16-bit microcomputer manufactured by NEC.- History :It first appeared in 1982, and employed an 8086 CPU. It ran at a clock speed of 5 MHz, with two µPD7220 display controllers , and shipped with 128 KB of RAM, expandable to 640 KB...
computers were widespread and dominated in the 1980s, at one point reaching 70% of the 16/32 bit computer market. However, they had poor graphics (640×400 at 16 of 4096 colors) and sounds (4-operator/3 voice monaural FM sounds). Just as Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
saw an opening for the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
in some global markets against the IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
PC, a computer with improved graphics and sounds was considered to overcome the PC-9801 in the home-use field in Japan.
With many multimedia innovations for its time, the FM Towns was that system, though for a number of reasons it never broke far beyond the boundaries of its niche market status.
Eventually the "Towns" lost much of its uniqueness by adding a DOS/V (PC Clone + DOS with native Japanese language support) compatibility mode switch, until Fujitsu finally discontinued making FM Towns specific hardware and software and moved to focus on the IBM PC clones that many Japanese manufacturers who previously were not players in the PC market were building by the mid to late 1990s. To this day, Fujitsu is known for its laptop PCs globally, and FM Towns (and Marty) users have been relegated to a small community of aficionados.
Details
Several variants were built; the first system was based on an Intel 80386SXIntel 80386
The Intel 80386, also known as the i386, or just 386, was a 32-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time...
processor running at a clock speed of 16 MHz, with the option of adding an 80387 FPU
Floating point unit
A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root...
, featured one or two megabyte
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
s of RAM (with a possible maximum of 64 MB), one or two 3.5" floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
drives and a single-speed CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
drive. It was delivered with a gamepad, a mouse and a microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
.
The earlier, more distinctive models featuring a vertical CD-ROM tray on the front of the case (1F, 2F, 1H, 2H, 10F and 20F) were often referred to as the "Gray" Towns, and were the ones most directly associated with the "FM Towns" brand. Most featured 3 memory expansion slots and used 72-pin non-parity SIMMs with a required timing of 100ns or less and a recommended timing of 60ns.
Hard drives were not standard equipment, and were not required for most uses. The OS was loaded from CD-ROM by default. A SCSI Centronics 50/SCSI-1/Full-Pitch port was provided for connecting external SCSI disk drives, and was the most common way to connect a hard drive to an FM Towns PC. Although internal drives are rare, there is a hidden compartment with a SCSI 50-pin connector where a hard drive may be connected, however the power supply module does not typically provide the required Molex connector to power the drive.
The video output was RGB using the same DB15 connector and pinouts as earlier Apple Macintosh computers.
The operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
used was Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
3.0/3.1/95 and a graphical OS called Towns OS, based on MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
and the Phar Lap
Phar Lap (company)
Phar Lap was a software company specializing in software development tools for DOS operating systems. They were most noted for their software allowing developers to access memory beyond the 640 KiB limit of DOS and were an author of the VCPI standard.Phar Lap Software, Inc. was founded in April...
DOS extender
DOS extender
A DOS extender is a computer software program which enables software to run under a protected mode environment even though the host operating system is only capable of operating in real mode....
(RUN386.EXE). Most games for the system were written in protected mode
Protected mode
In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units...
Assembly
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
and C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
using the Phar Lap DOS extender. These games usually utilized the Towns OS API (TBIOS) for handling several graphic modes, sprites, sounds, a mouse, gamepads and CD-audio.
A minimal DOS system that allowed the CD-ROM drive to be accessed was contained in a system ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
; this, coupled with Fujitsu's decision to charge only a minimal license fee for the inclusion of a bare-bones Towns OS on game CD-ROMs, allowed game developers to make games bootable directly from CD-ROM without the need for a boot floppy or hard disk.
To boot the system from CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
disk, the FM TOWNS had a "hidden C:" ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
drive in which a minimum MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
system, CD-ROM driver and MSCDEX.EXE were installed. This minimal DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
system ran first, and the DOS system read and executed the TownsOS IPL stored in CD-ROM disk after that. The Towns OS CD-ROM disk had an IPL
IPL
-Sports:* Indian Premier League, a cricket league* Indonesian Premier League, a football league* Iran Pro League, a football league* Irish Premier League, a former football league* Israeli Premier League, a football league-Computing :* IBM Public License...
, MS-DOS system (IO.SYS), DOS extender, and Towns API (TBIOS).
Various Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and BSD distributions have also been ported to the FM Towns system, including Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
and Gentoo
Gentoo Linux
Gentoo Linux is a computer operating system built on top of the Linux kernel and based on the Portage package management system. It is distributed as free and open source software. Unlike a conventional software distribution, the user compiles the source code locally according to their chosen...
. A version of GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
called GNU for FM Towns was released in 1990.
Graphics
The FM Towns featured video modes ranging from 320×200 to 640×480, with 16 to 32768 simultaneous colours out of a possible 4096 to 16.7 million (depending on the video mode); most of these video modes had two memory pages, and it allowed the use of up to 1024 sprites of 16×16 pixels each. It also had a built-in font ROM for the display of kanjiKanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
characters.
One unique feature of the FM Towns system was the ability to overlay different video modes; for example, the 320×200 video with 32,768 colours could be overlaid with a 640×480 mode using 16 colours, which allowed games to combine high-colour graphics with high-resolution kanji text.
Sound
The FM Towns system was able to play regular audio CDCompact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s, and also supported the use of eight PCM
Pulse-code modulation
Pulse-code modulation is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form for digital audio in computers and various Blu-ray, Compact Disc and DVD formats, as well as other uses such as digital telephone systems...
voices and six FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
channels, thanks to Ricoh RF5c68
Ricoh RF5c68
The RF5c68 is an eight-channel sound chip developed by Ricoh. It was notably used in the Fujitsu FM Towns computer system, along with Sega's System 18 and System 32 arcade game machines....
and Yamaha YM2612
Yamaha YM2612
thumb|right|Yamaha YM2612The YM2612, aka OPN2, is a six-channel sound chip developed by Yamaha. It belongs to Yamaha's OPN family of FM synthesis chips used in several game and computer systems. Developed as a stripped-down version of the YM2608, it lacks its larger sibling's ADPCM channel,...
chipsets, respectively. The system had ports in the front to accommodate Karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
, LEDs to indicate volume level, and software to add popular voice-altering effects such as echoes.
Games on the FM Towns regularly used Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...
orchestral music tracks, especially if they were designed specifically for the Fujitsu system (Games ported from the PC9801, for instance, might have used only PCM/FM music). This was a novelty and innovation far ahead of other PCs of the time made possible by the standard CD-ROM drive in every FM Towns computer.
Operating system
The FM Towns was capable of booting its Towns OS, a graphical, GUI OS straight from CD in 1989, a full 7 years before the boot-from-CD capable Windows 95Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
B OSR2 was released in 1996 (and that was still not to run the OS, but for installation purposes only).
External links
- FM Towns entry at Old-Computers.com
- The world of FM Towns
- UNZ (うんづ) – An FM Towns emulator
- FM Towns/Bochs – An FM Towns emulator based on BochsBochsBochs is a portable x86 and x86-64 IBM PC compatible emulator and debugger mostly written in C++ and distributed as free software under GNU Lesser General Public License...
- The Collectible Ultima site referencing the Ultima VI for FM Towns.
- Vector: Freeware Library For FM Towns (Japanese)
- How to create and format an HD image and installing MS-DOS with full CD support in it using the Unz emulator