【Fujitsu】FM TOWNS II SN model

Fujitsu launched the FM TOWNS II SN notebook model for the educational field in February 1995.

Facing up to the certainty of the IT age, the Japanese Ministry of Education and Ministry of Home Affairs (today part of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, respectively) led a deliberate drive to place computers in public schools between 1994 and 1999. This caused a spike in the educational sector’s demand for computers. At the same time, computer use was diversifying beyond computer classes, as students took computers to regular classes and science classes and connected them to various audio and video devices and experimental apparatus. Computer classes also needed computers that didn’t take up space in order to give each student a computer. As a result, conventional desktops no longer met the needs of the educational sector.

The FM TOWNS II SN notebook model’s design harnessed the features of Fujitsu’s multimedia FM TOWNS computer to meet these specific needs. The SN model had the following features.

• Notebook-sized computer for excellent portability.
• The computer’s height and area were reduced in order not to obstruct teacher-student communication.
• The 10.4-inch TFT color screen (capable of displaying 260,000 colors) had a wide viewing angle so multiple users could see the screen during group work or teacher instructions.
• Equipped with S-Video/NTSC output terminals for connections with TV sets so teaching materials and presentations could be shown on the classroom television.
• The notebook could be used as a measurement device for science experiments by connecting a measurement sensor to its RS-232C, Centronics, or other communication interfaces.
• The included Town-OS and Windows 3.1 operating systems ensured that the notebook could run a rich variety of educational software.

（*1） Three-mode floppy drive: supports disks in any of three capacity formats: 720 KB, 1.2 MB, and 1.44 MB.