Sony began selling the SMC-777 (three-seven) personal computer in November 1983. Aimed for the home market, it came with a built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Designed to be used without needing any special knowledge, the SMC-777 could be operated by inserting a floppy disk with the appropriate software program into the computer and selecting the required functions from a screen menu with the cursor keys. The SMC-777 came with an original disk containing simple programming languages, software, and games to familiarize users with computers and get them interested in programming while having fun.
The SMC-777 had the following features.
- 1. The SMC-777 came with Sony's own Sony Filer operating system. Software could be selected and run through simple menu selections.
- 2. The SMC-777 came with a floppy disk containing eight software applications, including a basic programming language with function-based calculations, an educational programming language, and games.
- 3. The enhanced color graphics could make use of 16 colors, with the addition of eight intermediate colors to the basic eight colors of the SMC-70. The optional color palette board made it possible to design graphics with 16 colors chosen from a 4,096-color palette.
| Item | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Primary CPU: Z80A Secondary CPU: M5L8041 |
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| Memory | ROM: 16 KB (standard, with I/O routines built in) RAM: 64 KB (main) 38 KB (video) |
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| Kanji-character ROM (sold separately) | JIS Level 1 characters (2,965) + non-kanji characters (885) Able to use as a Japanese-language word processor with optional software |
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| Display functions | Character display | 40 characters×25 lines×2 panes, or 80 characters×25 lines×1 pane Up to 256 display characters |
| Characters | Programmable Character Generator support, 256 characters, various attributes | |
| Graphics display | 640×200 pixels (4 colors) 320×200 pixels (16 colors) |
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| Border area | 16 colors | |
| Color palette (sold separately) | 16 colors selected from a 4,096-color palette | |
| Sound function | Three square wave generators | |
| CRT interfaces | RGB analog interface RGB digital interface |
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| Auxiliary cassette interface | 1200 BPS | |
| Printer interface | Parallel interface (compliant with the Centronics specification) | |
| Keyboard | Selectric layout, 50 kana-character order, 74 keys |
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| Joystick | Joystick serving as cursor keys built in Two interfaces for external joysticks |
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| Extension bus interface | One internal slot SMC-70 compatible bus can be pulled out to use expansion cards |
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| Floppy disk drive | 3.5-inch single-sided, double-density 280 KB/drive Data transfer speed: 500 Kbit/ |
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| Content on Sony's original disk | 1. Sony Filer 2. Dr. Logo 3. 777 Basic 4. 777 Assembler 5. 777 Debugger 6. 777 Memo (a simple language) 7. Bird Crush game 8. Mysterious Boy game 9. Pink Cats game |
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