The Amstrad PPC512 and Amstrad PPC640 were the first portable IBM PC compatible computers made by Amstrad. They were a development of the desktop PC-1512 and PC-1640 models. As portable computers, they contained all the elements necessary to perform computing on the move. They had a keyboard and a monochrome LCD display built in and also had space for disposable batteries to power the PC where a suitable alternative power source (i.e. mains or 12 volt vehicle power) was not available. The PCs came with either one or two double density double side floppy disc drives and the PPC640 model also featured a modem. Both models were supplied with 'PPC Organiser' software and the PPC640 was additionally supplied with the 'Mirror II' communications software.

The PPC512 had an NEC V30 processor running at 8MHz, 512 KiB of memory, a full-size 102-key keyboard, a built-in liquid crystal display (not backlit) that could emulate the CGA or MDA and either one or two 720k 3.5" floppy drives (the model was either the PPC512S or PPC512D depending on the number of drives it had). The PPC640 was otherwise identical except that it had 640 KiB of memory, a built-in modem, and its case was a darker shade of grey.

The PPC included standard connectors for RS-232, Centronics and CGA/MDA video, allowing existing peripherals to be used. All the signals used by the 8-bit ISA bus were also available through an expansion connector.

Introduction 1988
CPU: NEC V30 @ 8Mhz
Memory: 512kb RAM 
OPERATING SYSTEM MS-DOS 3.3 
Drives: two 720k 3.5" floppy drives

Our machine has a serial number of 532-8604141 and is complete with the original soft case and 372 page user instructions - First Edition 1988 - reference J2220101A

Manufacturer: Amstrad
Date: 1988

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH24547. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

Click on the Image(s) For Detail

	Articles