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Schneider CPC464

CPC464 Schneider-logo (11 KBytes)

Schneider CPC464

CPC464 (58 KBytes)

The Schneider CPC464 with a GT65-2 green-monitor (which also contains the power-supply, by the way). Behind, to its left, user manual and a presentation tape (BASIC demos etc). Note that the 'original' CPC464 (by AMSTRAD) had a multi-colored keyboard, but obviously, the Schneider AG (AMSTRAD's german distributor) decided to use neutral colors instead
(picture copyright by M.A.Grundke)

Specifications

Name Schneider CPC464

Codename
Arnold (the 1983 prototype's codename)
later referred to as Arnold I

Made by
Schneider AG, Türkheim
Schneider was AMSTRAD's german distributor these days. The machines and peripherals they sold came with Schneider labels and power-on BASIC message. Later, AMSTRAD marketed their computers in the german market themselves (from 1988 on?)

Released
April 11, 1984
presented to public at Westminster School, London

Serial-No. 533-7810825

Board-info
AMSTRAD COPYRIGHT 1984
PT NO.Z70200
MC0008O
also see the board overview

CPU Zilog Z80A (an i8080-descendant)

Speed 4.00 MHz
some claim the CPU runs at 3.3 MHz. This is effectively true. On the one hand, the 40010 generates a 4 MHz clock-cycle for the Z80. But since the Z80 is halted via WAIT-line when the CRTC accesses bus or RAM, its effective speed is indeed about 3.3 MHz

RAM 64 KBytes
8 pcs. Samsung KM4164B-15 (64Kx1)
more with RAM-expansions, which also contained the necessary bankswitching logic

ROM/ Native OS
AMSTRAD 40009 ROM (32 KBytes), consisting of
Locomotive Basic v1.0
AMSTRAD Firmware v1
CP/M Plus 2.2 usable (available on 3" disks from AMSTRAD)
later machines (CPC664, CPC6128, CPC Plus-series) came with additional AMSDOS in ROM (required for diskdrives)
because of the Z80's limited address range, ROMs always 'overlap' the topmost 16 KB RAM. In order to read the RAM there, the ROM can be disabled (by default, ROM at that address can be read, RAM there can be written to)

Keyboard/ Layout 74 keys (+6 for the cassette-recorder), US/ QWERTY-layout
as mentioned earlier, the CPC464 by AMSTRAD had a multi-colored keyboard (instead of the more neutral variant chosen by Schneider): the keys ESC and REC were red, both ENTER keys blue and the other special keys (COPY, DEL, SHIFT, CTRL, TAB and CAPS LOCK) were green
there were also machines with spanish localized keyboard

Graphics UMC UM6845R 'CRTC'
AMSTRAD 40010 'Gate Array'
Max.Res.: 640x200 (monochrome)
Max. Colors: 17 at 160x200 from 27 color palette (including border)
Text: 20, 40 or 80x25 characters with graphical charset
the 40010 controls graphic mode settings (thus creates the data), the CRTC does the output

about 16 KB are used as video-RAM upon operation
AMSTRAD also used Motorola MC6845 and Hitachi HD6845S CRTCs (maybe others). Slight incompatibilities between these are reported to exist

Sound General Instruments AY-3-8912 'Programmable Sound Generator'
three tone- and one noise-generator (including mixer), eight octaves range, amplitude control, envelope generator
8 bit I/O-port to the TMP8255AP
sound output via internal speaker or 3.5 mm stereo-jack, and controllable via volume-knob

Media
standard Audio-cassettes (via built-in cassette-recorder)
3" disks (!) via external AMSTRAD DDI-1 diskdrive
178 KBytes/ side (AMSDOS)
169 KBytes/ side (CP/M)
two drives possible, the second one has to be an AMSTRAD FD1
disks are double-sided, but must be turned manually
as you can see from the specs, the CPC464 doesn't have a floppy controller integrated. It was included in the DDI-1, together with an AMSDOS ROM (which the CPC464 also lacks)

Input/ Output Toshiba TMP8255AP-5 ('Programmable Peripheral Interface' for ports, cassette interface, keyboard scanning, AY-3-8912 interface)
50 pin male edge conn. (expansion, i.e. diskdrives)
34 pin male edge conn. (7 bit printerport)
6 pin DIN monitor-out (also used for the TV-modulators AMSTRAD MP1/ MP2 - quite blurry TV output, by the way)
1x 9 pin Joystick/Paddles (special CPC-Joysticks, coming with their own additional 9 pin port, which allows 'daisy-chaining')
3.5 mm stereo-jack headphones-out

5V DC-in (power supply's in the monitor/ TV-modulator!)
note that some CPC are said to have come with Centronics connectors instead of the male edge connectors mentioned above (because of emission regulations e.g. in Germany)

Miscellaneous
With the CPC464, AMSTRAD tried to compete with the C64. It had more colors, so CPC-games were often more colorful than C64-games (after all, 'CPC' means Colour Personal Computer). But because of its inability to generate hardware-sprites, and the fact that the AY-3-8912 could not compete with SID, the C64 was first choice for gamers, although there were lots of great CPC-games

The CPC464 was initially planned as a 6502-based system. But since Locomotive Basic was only available for the Zilog Z80 upon completion of the Arnold-prototype, and time was short, it was redesigned with Z80 CPU
Like Commodore's C128, CPCs were CP/M-capable. But with the upcoming MS-DOS, CP/M was more and more pushed aside and was finally gone

Other members of the CPC-family:
CPC664 ('Arnold II'). 64K, built-in 3" diskdrive
CPC6128 ('Arnold III'). 128K, built-in 3" diskdrive
CPC6128 Rev.3 ('Arnold IV'). CPC6128 with cost-reduced board
A CPC472 did also exist. This strange fellow was sold in Spain by AMSTRAD's distributor there, Indescomp. Technically a CPC464, it came with 72 KB RAM, where the additional 8K were placed on a pickaback board. This board resided in the ROM socket, taking the ROM and the additional RAM chip. This additional RAM was necessary because back in the days, Spain had an additional import tax for computers with 64K or less and without spanish keyboard. Apparently, it was too much effort to create a spanish keyboard and change the machine's character set, so Indescomp decided just to add an additional 8K, and kept the english keyboard. However, spanish law was changed shortly after, and so they finally had to release a machine with spanish keyboard. As a result, both CPC464 and CPC472 were sold in Spain and can be found with either spanish or english keyboard. As for the additional RAM, some sources claim it wasn't connected at all (a dummy), while others say it was connected and could be accessed with machine code programming
Only sold in the UK and Spain was the CPC Plus-series (Codename: 'Arnold V', consisting of CPC464 Plus and CPC6128 Plus). These machines came with redesigned board and featured hardware sprites, a 4096-color palette and soft-scrolling. The later GX4000 game console, a hopeless try to resurrect the CPC-series, was also based on a 'Plus'-machine

'International Karate+' screenshot (23 KBytes) 'Trantor' screenshot (37 KBytes)
'International Karate+' by System 3 (left) and 'Trantor - The last Stormtropper' by Probe were impressive examples of the CPC's color-capabilities. IK+ didn't only have nice graphics but also great sound, thanks to Rob Hubbard (although, because of the machine's limited sound capabilites, the CPC-version sound could not compete with that of other conversions)

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Sothius' Home - Museum - AMSTRAD - Schneider CPC464 - additional pictures

Name	Schneider CPC464
Codename	Arnold (the 1983 prototype's codename) later referred to as Arnold I
Made by	Schneider AG, Türkheim Schneider was AMSTRAD's german distributor these days. The machines and peripherals they sold came with Schneider labels and power-on BASIC message. Later, AMSTRAD marketed their computers in the german market themselves (from 1988 on?)
Released	April 11, 1984 presented to public at Westminster School, London
Serial-No.	533-7810825
Board-info	AMSTRAD COPYRIGHT 1984 PT NO.Z70200 MC0008O also see the board overview
CPU	Zilog Z80A (an i8080-descendant)
Speed	4.00 MHz some claim the CPU runs at 3.3 MHz. This is effectively true. On the one hand, the 40010 generates a 4 MHz clock-cycle for the Z80. But since the Z80 is halted via WAIT-line when the CRTC accesses bus or RAM, its effective speed is indeed about 3.3 MHz
RAM	64 KBytes 8 pcs. Samsung KM4164B-15 (64Kx1) more with RAM-expansions, which also contained the necessary bankswitching logic
ROM/ Native OS	AMSTRAD 40009 ROM (32 KBytes), consisting of Locomotive Basic v1.0 AMSTRAD Firmware v1 CP/M Plus 2.2 usable (available on 3" disks from AMSTRAD) later machines (CPC664, CPC6128, CPC Plus-series) came with additional AMSDOS in ROM (required for diskdrives) because of the Z80's limited address range, ROMs always 'overlap' the topmost 16 KB RAM. In order to read the RAM there, the ROM can be disabled (by default, ROM at that address can be read, RAM there can be written to)
Keyboard/ Layout	74 keys (+6 for the cassette-recorder), US/ QWERTY-layout as mentioned earlier, the CPC464 by AMSTRAD had a multi-colored keyboard (instead of the more neutral variant chosen by Schneider): the keys ESC and REC were red, both ENTER keys blue and the other special keys (COPY, DEL, SHIFT, CTRL, TAB and CAPS LOCK) were green there were also machines with spanish localized keyboard
Graphics	UMC UM6845R 'CRTC' AMSTRAD 40010 'Gate Array' Max.Res.: 640x200 (monochrome) Max. Colors: 17 at 160x200 from 27 color palette (including border) Text: 20, 40 or 80x25 characters with graphical charset the 40010 controls graphic mode settings (thus creates the data), the CRTC does the output about 16 KB are used as video-RAM upon operation AMSTRAD also used Motorola MC6845 and Hitachi HD6845S CRTCs (maybe others). Slight incompatibilities between these are reported to exist
Sound	General Instruments AY-3-8912 'Programmable Sound Generator' three tone- and one noise-generator (including mixer), eight octaves range, amplitude control, envelope generator 8 bit I/O-port to the TMP8255AP sound output via internal speaker or 3.5 mm stereo-jack, and controllable via volume-knob
Media	standard Audio-cassettes (via built-in cassette-recorder) 3" disks (!) via external AMSTRAD DDI-1 diskdrive 178 KBytes/ side (AMSDOS) 169 KBytes/ side (CP/M) two drives possible, the second one has to be an AMSTRAD FD1 disks are double-sided, but must be turned manually as you can see from the specs, the CPC464 doesn't have a floppy controller integrated. It was included in the DDI-1, together with an AMSDOS ROM (which the CPC464 also lacks)
Input/ Output	Toshiba TMP8255AP-5 ('Programmable Peripheral Interface' for ports, cassette interface, keyboard scanning, AY-3-8912 interface) 50 pin male edge conn. (expansion, i.e. diskdrives) 34 pin male edge conn. (7 bit printerport) 6 pin DIN monitor-out (also used for the TV-modulators AMSTRAD MP1/ MP2 - quite blurry TV output, by the way) 1x 9 pin Joystick/Paddles (special CPC-Joysticks, coming with their own additional 9 pin port, which allows 'daisy-chaining') 3.5 mm stereo-jack headphones-out 5V DC-in (power supply's in the monitor/ TV-modulator!) note that some CPC are said to have come with Centronics connectors instead of the male edge connectors mentioned above (because of emission regulations e.g. in Germany)
Miscellaneous	With the CPC464, AMSTRAD tried to compete with the C64. It had more colors, so CPC-games were often more colorful than C64-games (after all, 'CPC' means Colour Personal Computer). But because of its inability to generate hardware-sprites, and the fact that the AY-3-8912 could not compete with SID, the C64 was first choice for gamers, although there were lots of great CPC-games The CPC464 was initially planned as a 6502-based system. But since Locomotive Basic was only available for the Zilog Z80 upon completion of the Arnold-prototype, and time was short, it was redesigned with Z80 CPU Like Commodore's C128, CPCs were CP/M-capable. But with the upcoming MS-DOS, CP/M was more and more pushed aside and was finally gone Other members of the CPC-family: CPC664 ('Arnold II'). 64K, built-in 3" diskdrive CPC6128 ('Arnold III'). 128K, built-in 3" diskdrive CPC6128 Rev.3 ('Arnold IV'). CPC6128 with cost-reduced board A CPC472 did also exist. This strange fellow was sold in Spain by AMSTRAD's distributor there, Indescomp. Technically a CPC464, it came with 72 KB RAM, where the additional 8K were placed on a pickaback board. This board resided in the ROM socket, taking the ROM and the additional RAM chip. This additional RAM was necessary because back in the days, Spain had an additional import tax for computers with 64K or less and without spanish keyboard. Apparently, it was too much effort to create a spanish keyboard and change the machine's character set, so Indescomp decided just to add an additional 8K, and kept the english keyboard. However, spanish law was changed shortly after, and so they finally had to release a machine with spanish keyboard. As a result, both CPC464 and CPC472 were sold in Spain and can be found with either spanish or english keyboard. As for the additional RAM, some sources claim it wasn't connected at all (a dummy), while others say it was connected and could be accessed with machine code programming Only sold in the UK and Spain was the CPC Plus-series (Codename: 'Arnold V', consisting of CPC464 Plus and CPC6128 Plus). These machines came with redesigned board and featured hardware sprites, a 4096-color palette and soft-scrolling. The later GX4000 game console, a hopeless try to resurrect the CPC-series, was also based on a 'Plus'-machine


'International Karate+' by System 3 (left) and 'Trantor - The last Stormtropper' by Probe were impressive examples of the CPC's color-capabilities. IK+ didn't only have nice graphics but also great sound, thanks to Rob Hubbard (although, because of the machine's limited sound capabilites, the CPC-version sound could not compete with that of other conversions)