NC100 Notepad

NC100

The Amstrad NC100 was an A4 size portable Computer Based on the Z80 microprocessor. The design is very simple and the aim was that a word processor, spreadsheet, Calculator, BBC Basic, and diary will be in one portable computer. It was designed for business purposes and with its 64Kb Ram expandable to 1Mb, it was more than enough to hold a few documents, appointments, custom made basic applications and spreadsheets. The machine ran on AA cell batteries and as a backup battery used a small Cell type 3V battery for backup. It had an RS232 port, Parallel Port, and a PC Card socket to increase its memory to 1MB. The testing of the machine was done by Lord Alan Sugar himself and also wrote the first chapter of the User Manual, to show that even he could use it. Due to its success the following year Amstrad released the NC200 version with disk drives capable of saving data in IBM format and 128Kb of RAM.
NC100
UK: £199 (1992)
S 08631-9308
1992
Zilog Z84C00 (Z80 Compatible) CMOS running at a frequency of 6Mhz
64Kb internal memory and 256Kb Rom including Diary, speadsheet, Memo,BBC Basic and Agenda. Ram can be expanded to 1Mb. Internal memory is split accordingly (15K system-, 11K upper-, 38K lower memory)
Dark Grey case with a PCMCIA slot on the left side, RS232, Parallel and power connector port at the top. The screen is quite large and comfortable to read. At the top right corner there is an ON/OFF switch and the unit has an internal battery backup to retain the current time. The AA battery compartment is used to work off the mains and retain saved memory. The keyboard is a full QWERTY Keyboard full stroke 64 Keys with colored function keys.
The Custom Chip uPD 65034 is responsible for Clock generation, UART, Printer, LCD-screen, Keyboard, Memory mangmnt, PCMCIA-interface and sound generation. The chip is capable of displaying Text of 80 x 8 in grey scale and 480 x 64 pixels also in grey scale.
The Custom Chip uPD 65034 is responsible for Clock generation, UART, Printer, LCD-screen, Keyboard, Memory mangmnt, PCMCIA-interface and sound generation. The chip is capable of playing notes and generates sound but is mainly used as a beeper for alarms or scheduled tasks.
1 x PCMCIA Port
1 x Parallel Port
1 x Serial Port
External Power Supply with a voltage of 6.5V DC Min 600mAh
Dimensions 295mm x 210mm x 22mm (W x L x H) Weight 930 g
Not known how much units were sold

The Club currently has 1 complete unit with manuals and mains supply. The unit is not boxed but clean from dust and scratches and it’s in fully working order. The unit was donated to the club in 2004 and who donated it wishes to stay anonymous. It was mainly used as a diary and appointments electronic pad way back in 1994.

Parallel Port

25 Pin D-SUB Female
at the Computer
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 /STRO IN/
OUT		 Strobe
2 D0 OUT Data
Bit 0
3 D1 OUT Data
Bit 1
4 D2 OUT Data
Bit 2
5 D3 OUT Data
Bit 3
6 D4 OUT Data
Bit 4
7 D5 OUT Data
Bit 5
8 D6 OUT Data
Bit 6
9 D7 OUT Data
Bit 7
10 ACK IN Ackno-
wledge
11 BUSY/
READY		 IN Busy
12 POUT IN Paper Out
13 SEL IN Select
Shared
with
RS232
14 FEED IN/OUT Auto
Feed
15 ERROR IN Printer
Error
16 RESET IN/OUT Reset
Cold
Start
17 SEL
INPUT		 IN/OUT Select
Input
18 GND N/A Ground
19 GND N/A Ground
20 GND N/A Ground
21 GND N/A Ground
22 GND N/A Ground
23 GND N/A Ground
24 GND N/A Ground
25 GND N/A Ground

PCMCIA

PCMCIA 68pin Male
at the computer
Pin NC
100		 PCM
CIA
V2.0		 Dir Desc
1 GND GND N/A Ground
2 D3 D3 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 3
3 D4 D4 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 4
4 D5 D5 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 5
5 D6 D6 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 6
6 D7 D7 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 7
7 /CE1 /CE1 IN Card
Enable
8 A10 A10 OUT Addr
Bit 10
9 /OE /OE IN Out
Enable
10 A11 A11 OUT Addr
Bit 11
11 A9 A9 OUT Addr
Bit 9
12 A8 A8 OUT Addr
Bit 8
13 A13 A13 OUT Addr
Bit 13
14 A14 A14 OUT Addr
Bit 14
15 /WE
PGM		 /WE
PGM		 OUT Write
Enable
Prog
16 RDY
/BSY		 RDY
/BSY		 OUT Ready
Busy
Interr
17 VCC VCC OUT +5V
DC
18 VPP1 VPP1 OUT Volt
Prog
Perip
1
19 A16 A16 OUT Addr
Bit 16
20 A15 A15 OUT Addr
Bit 15
21 A12 A12 OUT Addr
Bit 12
22 A7 A7 OUT Addr
Bit 7
23 A6 A6 OUT Addr
Bit 6
24 A5 A5 OUT Addr
Bit 5
25 A4 A4 OUT Addr
Bit 4
26 A3 A3 OUT Addr
Bit 3
27 A2 A2 OUT Addr
Bit 2
28 A1 A1 OUT Addr
Bit 1
29 A0 A0 OUT Addr
Bit 0
30 D0 D0 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 0
31 D1 D1 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 1
32 D2 D2 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 2
33 WP WP OUT Write
Prot
Switch
34 GND GND N/A Ground
35 GND GND N/A Ground
36 /CD1 /CD1 OUT Card
Detect
1
37 NC D11 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 11
38 NC D12 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 12
39 NC D13 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 13
40 NC D14 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 14
41 NC D15 IN/
OUT		 Data
Bit 15
42 NC /CE2 IN Card
Enable
43 NC RFSH IN Refrsh
44 NC RFU IN RES
45 NC RFU IN RES
46 A17 A17 OUT Addr
Bit 17
47 A18 A18 OUT Addr
Bit 18
48 A19 A19 OUT Addr
Bit 19
49 NC A20 OUT Addr
Bit 20
50 NC A21 OUT Addr
Bit 21
51 VCC VCC OUT +5V
DC
53 NC A22 OUT Addr
Bit 22
54 NC A23 OUT Addr
Bit 23
55 NC A24 OUT Addr
Bit 24
56 NC A25 OUT Addr
Bit 25
57 NC RFU IN RES
58 NC RESET OUT CARD
RESET
59 NC /WAIT IN Ext
Bus
Cycle
Sig
60 NC RFU OUT RES
61 /REG /REG IN Regst
63 BVD1 BVD1 IN Passed
Diag
64 NC D8 IN/OUT Data
Bit 8
65 NC D9 IN/OUT Data
Bit 9
66 NC D10 IN/OUT Data
Bit 10
67 /CD2 /CD2 OUT Card
Detect
2
68 GND GND N/A Ground

Power Connector

Power DC Chassis Connector
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 GND N/A GND
2 +6V DC IN +6V Min
400mA

Serial port

DB9 9 pin Chassis
at the computer
Pin NC
100		 STD
232		 Dir Desc
1 NC DCD IN Data
Carr
Detect
2 RX RX IN Recv
Data
3 TX TX OUT Trans
Data
4 DTR DTR OUT Data
Term
ready
5 GND SGND N/A Signal
Ground
6 NC DSR IN Data
Set
Ready
7 RTS RTS OUT Req
to
Send
8 CTS CTS IN Clear
to
Send
9 NC RI IN Ring
Indict