IBM JX was what the PCjr should have been. It was first released in Japan with dual English/Kanji features, but has not been a big succes in that market dominated by Japanese companies.
The Kanji features were then removed and the system was introduced in Australia. It was first submitted to the Victorian Education Department then released for general dealer sales in September 1985.
The JX was thus an enhanced version of the IBM PC Junior (which had no great success) with which it was compatible. Its enhanced features were :
- the RAM could be extended up to 512 KB instead of 128 KB,
- it had two 3.5" floppy drives instead of only one 360 KB 5.25" one
- it had a high graphic resolution (750 x 512 instead of 640 x 200)
- and the keyboard was a true one (contrary to the early PC Jr which has a poor one).
It used version 2.1 of MS-DOS and functioned exactly the same as an original PC model. However the inside of the computer was vastly different from an IBM PC. The expansion slots were limited and not compatible with IBM-PC slots.
Several options were available: Extended 98-key keyboard, joysticks, cassette recorder, light pen, asynchronous communications and additional expansion slots.
NAME
PC JX
MANUFACTURER
IBM
TYPE
Home Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
October 1984
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Advanced BASIC (Same as PCjr)
KEYBOARD
Full stroke 79-key with 10 function-key and arrow keys
CPU
Intel 8088
SPEED
4.77 MHz
CO-PROCESSOR
No 8087 socket
RAM
JX :64k (up to 512k) JX2 : 128k
VRAM
JX : 16k JX2 : 32k
ROM
128k
TEXT MODES
40 or 80 chars. x 25 lines in 8 colors
GRAPHIC MODES
320 x 200 / 640 x 200 (16 colors) / 720 x 512 (2 colors)
