The Columbia MPC (for Multi Personal Computer) was the first exact copy of the young IBM PC. This desktop clone version will be followed few months later by a portable version designed by the new Compaq company.
Technically, there is nothing to say about this computer which hardware features are exactly the same as those of the IBM 5150. However, for about $1500 less, the MPC offered standard features that were optional on the IBM: 128 KB of RAM, two Serial one parallel ports and 8 ISA slots (versus the IBM-PC's five). The MPC's disk controller was integrated into the motherboard.
As IBM didn't well protect the PC hardware and BIOS software copyrights, this first clone will be followed by many others, desktops and portables version, manufactured in numerous countries by hundreds of independant companies, all over the world.
The Columbia company was sold in 1986 to a company based in Florida which kept the name and still exists.
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Contributors: Joe Cassara.
NAME
MPC
MANUFACTURER
Columbia Data Products
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
June 1982
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke 86 keys with function keys & numeric keypad
CPU
Intel 8088
SPEED
4.77 Mhz.
RAM
128 KB up to 1 MB
ROM
Unknown
TEXT MODES
40 or 80 columns x 24 lines (MDA or CGA modes)
GRAPHIC MODES
320 or 640 x 200 dots (CGA mode)
COLORS
16
SOUND
Beeper
I/O PORTS
2 x Serial RS-232, 1 x Parallel Centronics, 8 x ISA slots
BUILT IN MEDIA
Dual 320 KB 5'' floppy disc drives
OS
MS-DOS, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, OASIS, XENIX
POWER SUPPLY
Built-in power supply unit
PERIPHERALS
all 8-bit PC expansion boards
PRICE
$3400 - 128k memory, 2 floppies and color CGA card 5 MB hard drive : $1700
