Sothius' Home of Ancient Microcomputers - Philips G7000 additional pictures

additional pictures

Philips G7000
'Videopac Computer'
Additional pictures. Note that loading the page could take a while...
(pictures copyright by M.A.Grundke)

G7000 serial number (16 KBytes)

Serial number closeup:
TYPE G7000 / 22
PHILIPS
NO SF115049
Note that identical serial number stickers can be found outside and inside the machine. Interesting is also the TYPE, 'G7000 / 22'. Does that mean that there have been 22 different versions of the G7000? Unlikely, yes, but I know that there have been at least machines with and without joystick plugs; maybe also different video standards and power supplies (depending on where the machine was sold) had their own type number? Note furthermore that the machine was MADE IN FRANCE, but still works ;-)

G7000 overview (78 KBytes)

G7000 overview:
so here's the G7000 opened up! As you can see, all three parts (mainboard to the left, powersupply to its right and RF-modulator below) are mounted into the upper part of the case. Also visible is the second sticker with serial number, identical to the one on the case's outside. Note the foil cable on the board's upper left, leading to the machine's 'keyboard'. Note also that the PSU-wires (brown & black) are soldered directly to the board. By the way, most of the mainboard and the PSU are unshielded (except for the RF-modulator and the lower right part of the mainboard - see below for what's under that shielding)

G7000 board overview (78 KBytes)

G7000 board overview:
on the board's upper left, you can see the cartridge slot, with the internal joystick-connectors above it. Right from there, the already mentioned foil cable connecting to the machine's keyboard. Below the cartridge connector resides the Motorola MCM6810P (128x8 RAM, left), the Intel 8245 (graphic, sound, in the middle) and the machine's CPU, the Intel P8048H (right). All the other, smaller chips are logic circuits (gate arrays of 74LSxx-type). Note that on the board's left, there's an area covered by emission shielding - see below

below the shielding (28 KBytes)

As promised above, here's a glimpse below that shielding on the board's lower left. You can see a 4 pin connector leading to the RF-modulator circuit (left, which is the lower side of the board), implying that these chips are used for generating the physical video output. They're all 74LSxx-type logic circuits, except for one chip I couldn't identify (612160-3, near the RF-connector). In the middle, you can see an adjustment screw and a crystal (17.73447 MHz). For PAL output, both 4.433618 MHz (color-carrier freq.) and 3.5468 MHz (color-burst) are required, which could be achieved by dividing that crystal's frequency by 4 and 5 (just an assumption). However, I assume that in the G7000's NTSC-variant, the Magnavox Odyssey², this board area contains NTSC-specific circuitry (i.e. different crystals)

G7000 RF modulator logic (51 KBytes)

The G7000's RF-modulator, connected to the machine's board through a 4 wire cable (right). On the left side, you can see part of the RF-cable, which is soldered there and leads to the G7000's outside. The modulator circuitry itself seems rather ordinary, consisting of resistors, capacitors and potentiometers for timing adjustment. Notable is the length of that RF-cable mentioned earlier: it's about 3.80 meters in lenght

G7000 integrated PSU (47 KBytes)

The machine's integrated powersupply. Nothing special, except for the fact that there are no connectors to the G7000's board, just two wires (black & brown, upper left of the PSU) soldered directly to PSU and mainboard. Interesting, as far is power is concerned, is that the G7000 has no power switch of any kind - to switch it off, you just had to pull the plug out! Very uncomfortable, but considering that you didn't need to turn off the machine to swap cartridges, it's acceptable. Note furthermore that the PSU is not shielded in any way

G7000 board silkscreening part 1 (30 KBytes)

G7000 board silkscreening, part 1 (lower boardside):
106 83912 (horizontal)
106 83932 (vertical)

G7000 board silkscreening part 2 (11 KBytes)

G7000 board silkscreening, part 2 (upper boardside):
106 83922
8394 2

G7000 Intel 8048 CPU (48 KBytes)

The G7000's CPU, an Intel P8048H microcontroller. It is a multifunction chip, that (apart from the CPU-core) also contains 2 8 bit I/O-ports, a timer, IRQ-line, a 1024x8 ROM and 64 Bytes RAM. Not much more was needed to build a complete videogame from that!

G7000 Motorola MCM6810P (25 KBytes)

The Motorola MCM6810P is a 128x8 RAM chip, the 'P' meaning 'plastic package'. Apparently, it was created for Motorola's MC6810 processor, the popular 8 bit predecessor of the MC68000. In the G7000 design, the MCM6810P can be enabled/ disabled via one of the 8048's I/O-ports

G7000 with videopac cartridge inserted (43 KBytes)

A 'videopac' (here Videopac 6, 'Tenping Bowling/ Basketball'), inserted in the machine's cart-slot. The handle was very useful for pulling the cart out. By the way, this was possible while the machine was running (!)

G7000 Intel 8245 (56 KBytes)

The Intel 8245, which houses a video display controller (VDC) to create the machine's graphics, and sound generator. Both sound and graphic were far from spectacular, and couldn't really stand against ATARI's VCS 2600. Nevertheless, the G7000 became a great success in Europe (and later Brazil), so that a successor with improved abilities was released later (the G7400, Codename 'G9000')

G7000 cartridge slot (64 KBytes)

The machine's 30 pin cartridge slot. Above it, the two onboard joystick-connectors. There was no plug for these, so the joysticks couldn't be removed from the machine! However, there have been other G7000 variants with joysticks-plugs

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