is the predecessor of the MSX standard. Many MSX programs were unofficially ported to the SV-328 by home programmers. In the early 1980s, most
home computers manufactured in
Japan such as the
NEC PC-6001 and
PC-8000 series,
Fujitsu's
FM-7 and
FM-8, and
Hitachi's Basic Master featured a variant of the
Microsoft BASIC interpreter integrated into their on-board
ROMs. The hardware design of these computers and the various dialects of their BASICs were incompatible. Other Japanese consumer electronics firms such as
Panasonic,
Canon,
Casio,
Yamaha,
Pioneer, and
Sanyo were searching for ways to enter the new home computer market. Major Japanese electronics companies entered the computer market in the 1960s, and Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial) was also developing
mainframe computers. The Japanese economy was facing a recession after the
1964 Summer Olympics and Panasonic decided to exit the computer business and focus on home appliances. The decision was a huge success, and Panasonic grew to become one of the largest electronics companies. In the late 1970s, the company investigated other business areas outside of home appliances. Panasonic also saw potential in the recent
microcomputer revolution. One of Panasonic's distributors, Yamagata National, told Panasonic's president, Toshihiko Yamashita: Yamashita ordered the vice president, Shunkichi Kisaka, to develop a personal computer, and Kisaka called on Kazuyasu Maeda of Matsushita
R&D Center. Maeda requested Nishi to assist with the development. They were already close to each other. When they met at a seminar held by NEC, they noticed both were from
Kobe and had graduated from the same university. They often talked to each other about home computers. At the same time,
Spectravideo contacted Microsoft in order to obtain software for their new home computer. Nishi went to
Hong Kong to meet with Spectravideo, and suggested some improvements to its prototype. Spectravideo's president, Harry Fox, was willing to accept Nishi's proposals. Nishi conceived to create a unified standard based on its machine, and Maeda agreed with his idea. The standard consisted primarily of several
off-the-shelf parts; the main CPU was a 3.58 MHz
Zilog Z80, the
Texas Instruments TMS9918 graphics chip with 16
KB of dedicated
VRAM, sound and partial I/O support was provided by the
AY-3-8910 chip manufactured by
General Instrument (GI), and an
Intel 8255 Programmable Peripheral Interface (PPI) chip was used for parallel I/O such as the keyboard. The choice of these components was shared by many other home computers and games consoles of the period, such as the
ColecoVision and
Sega SG-1000 video game systems. To reduce overall system cost, many MSX models used a custom
IC known as "
MSX-Engine", which integrated
glue logic, 8255 PPI, YM2149 compatible
sound chip and more, sometimes even the Z80 CPU. However, almost all MSX systems used a professional keyboard instead of a
chiclet keyboard, driving up the price compared to the original SV-328. Consequently, these components alongside Microsoft's
MSX BASIC made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat expensive, home computer package.
Debut has 64 KB of
RAM and the
V-10 has 16 KB. On June 27, 1983, the MSX was formally announced during a press conference, and a slew of big firms declared their plans to introduce the machines. These companies avoided the intensely competitive U.S. home computer market, which was in the throes of a
Commodore-led
price war. Only Spectravideo and Yamaha briefly marketed MSX machines in the U.S. Spectravideo's MSX enjoyed very little success, and Yamaha's
CX5M model, built to interface with various types of
MIDI equipment, was billed more as a digital music tool than a standard personal computer.
Evolution & the downfall of the MSX system MSX spawned four generations. The first three, MSX (1983), MSX2 (1985), and MSX2+ (1988), were all 8-bit computers based on the
Z80 microprocessor. The MSX2+ was exclusively released in Japan. A new MSX3 was originally scheduled to be released in 1990, but delays in the development of its Yamaha-designed VDP caused it to miss its
time to market deadline. In its place, the MSX TurboR was released, which used the new custom 16-bit
R800 microprocessor developed by
ASCII Corporation intended for the MSX3, but features such as DMA and 24-bit addressing were disabled. But also the problems with ASCII and the break-up with Microsoft early in 1986 were causing some more troubles. Nishi and Gates fell out, and Microsoft in 1986 disclosed the end of the partnership. Stating that Nishi owed the company more than $500,000, Microsoft set up its own Japanese subsidiary. But ASCII Corporation continued to thrive. Nishi was also inclined to make important decisions on impulse and to spend without restraint, which led Microsoft to break with Ascii in 1986. One of the straws that broke the camel’s back was when Nishi spent $1 million to get a huge mechanical dinosaur to build in Tokyo as an advertising device. The break between Gates and Nishi was bitter, though the two now speak periodically. In 1991, the other two co-founders of Ascii, Akio Gunji, president, and Keiichiro Tsukamoto, vice president, resigned abruptly, ostensibly in protest against rapid expansion. “They couldn’t keep up with me because I was accelerating too much,” Nishi said at a press conference at the time. In total, 9 million MSX computers were sold in Japan, making it relatively popular. However, the MSX did not become the worldwide standard envisioned because of limited adoption in other markets. Before the MSX's lack of success in these markets became apparent, US manufacturer
Commodore Business Machines overhauled its product line in the early 1980s and introduced models such as the
Plus/4 and
Commodore 16, that were intended to better compete with the features of MSX computers. In comparison with rival 8-bit computers, the
Commodore 64 is estimated to have sold 12.5–17 million units worldwide, the
Apple II sold 6 million units, the
ZX Spectrum over 5 million units, the
Atari 8-bit computers sold at least 4 million units, the
Amstrad CPC sold 3 million units, and the Tandy
TRS-80 Model 1 sold 250,000 units. A Sony MSX2 machine was launched into space to the Russian
Mir space station. ==Similar systems==