I feel like there has never been a computer more 1980s "computer-y" looking than this Canon AS-100 system This machine from 1982 machine ran MS-DOS on an 8088 with 128K of RAM but was not fully IBM PC compatible. Yes, those are twin 8" floppy drives! www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/ar... - ThreadSky

benjedwards.com • 89 days ago

I feel like there has never been a computer more 1980s "computer-y" looking than this Canon AS-100 system

This machine from 1982 machine ran MS-DOS on an 8088 with 128K of RAM but was not fully IBM PC compatible. Yes, those are twin 8" floppy drives!

https://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/884/retro-scan-of-the-week-canon-as-100

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Comments

vintagecomputer.ca•89 days ago

I have one and should take it out soon to make sure everything is okay still. Mine only has 5.25" drives.
I am surprised the ad doesn't mention the Canon software for it call CanoWriter (word processing) and CanoBrain (spreadsheets sort of). It, if course, could run CP/M-86 too.

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

That’s awesome! If you fire it up, send me some pictures 😁

vintagecomputer.ca•84 days ago

Here's a quick post. https://bsky.app/profile/vintagecomputer.ca/post/3ll5aqbwatc2y The manual picture reminded me I needed to archive the software and the sooner the better.

benjedwards.com•84 days ago

Awesome!!

nls5.bsky.social•89 days ago

with an Apple watch size screen

ceu---azul.bsky.social•89 days ago

wow wonderful machine

TIL about 8 inch floppies

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

IBM introduced the first commercial floppy drive in 1971. It worked with 8-inch flexible disks. In 1976, Alan Shugart, created a 5.25-inch floppy drive for personal computers. That disk size remained an industry standard until late 1980s, when Sony’s 3.5-inch floppy format (1981) largely took over.

ceu---azul.bsky.social•89 days ago

so cool, thanks

fuzzybunny.org•89 days ago

We once found a dead old Xerox PC with two 8" floppy drives in a back room of our college coop. It had had so much beer spilled on it that it was only good for roof testing, and its solid Soviet pig iron case took a fist sized divot out of the asphalt in the back alley. That's quality engineering.

kaz-k.bsky.social•89 days ago

This is a different story, though Canon was used to be the Apple’s authorized vendor in Japan.

neurographic.art•89 days ago

😍😍😍 now, THIS is a computer 🔥🔥🔥

adriansdigitalbasement.com•89 days ago

Side note, I don't think the often repeated 1982 release date for this machine is accurate. The advertisement you shared, talking about the new Canon AS-100 was from Personal Computing Magazine, November 1983, page 36.

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

Yep, I scanned that for my blog.
I am assuming that if the 1982 date is accurate, it was for the
Japanese release. But it may have just been 1983

philnelson.bsky.social•89 days ago

absolute fucking killer rig

philnelson.bsky.social•89 days ago

One of these times we’d love to have you write something up for @setsideb.com

aqoc.bsky.social•89 days ago

Looks a bit akin to the X68000.

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

The little knob-looking thing to the right of the keyboard is the "A-1100 Pointing Device" that this pamphlet calls a "cursor controller"

https://oldcomputers.dyndns.org/public/pub/rechner/canon/canon-as.100/manuals/canon-as-100_todays_challenges.pdf

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

I have a TRS-80 Model 12 that holds 1 megabyte per 8-inch disk and it's still kinda nuts to me. So much capacity for the early 1980s

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

Canon AS-100 had advanced hi-res graphics features: "The 12-inch 640×400-pixel color CRT display had a color palette of 27 colors, the largest color palette in its class."

"The AS-100 could process 4×24-dot kanji characters"

https://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/personal/0080.html

ftwaygal.bsky.social•89 days ago

mikeiona.bsky.social•89 days ago

May I suggest the East German VEB Robotron A-5120, also from 1982.

ianxz.bsky.social•89 days ago

I had an 8088 MS-DOS
When computers were fun, IMO.

stenar.net•89 days ago

For your consideration: The Apple Lisa. Also available with 2 floppy variant and with a massive 5mb hard drive.

mattflipsbits.bsky.social•89 days ago

What a beautiful monstrosity

ottojschlosser.bsky.social•89 days ago

No price in the ad, so I am guessing the barebones price at $3K.

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

It retailed for $3495 in 1983, which is about $11,207 today, adjusted for inflation. Pricey!

retrogamingdev.bsky.social•89 days ago

Honestly, this looks like what AI comes up with when I ask for an 80s computer.

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

Exactly

entropicenigma.bsky.social•89 days ago

If it ran MS-DOS and had an 8088 I wonder what caused the incompatibility issues.. do you know if its used IRQs and the like?

benjedwards.com•89 days ago

I don't know details, but it likely had a custom BIOS or system ROM which made programs that did direct calls to the IBM PC BIOS incompatible. That was a common incompatibility in MS-DOS using machine that weren't IBM PC clones