The AS-100 is a 16-bit professional computer based on the Intel 8088 CPU. It has 128 KB RAM, built-in speaker, optional 8087 math co-processor and real time clock. The whole system (monitor + disks + keyboard) weights more than 30 Kg! The AS-100 is not a real IBM compatible system. It can use MS-DOS as its Operating System but that's all.
The computer can display 25 lines of 80 columns, or 640 x 400 pixels, with 8 colours from a total of 27. The character matrix consists of 9 x 7 pixels. There are 128 ASCII characters, and more user re-definable ones. Display attributes are inversed, underlined, wide, blink and masked. The computer was delivered with a monochrome or colour monitor (both 30 cm wide).
Different optional drives could be connected:
- one or two 5.25" FDD units, DS/DD, 640 KB each, 250 ms average access time, 250 KB/s average transfer rate
- from one to four 8" FDD unit, DS/DD, 1.2 MB each, 200 ms average access time, 500 KB/s average transfer rate
- 8.2 Mb Winchester hard disk
All the disks can be combined as follow: two 5.25" units + two 8" units + one hard disk, or, four 8" units and one hard disk.
Some expansion options were available:
- daisy-wheel (A-1200 & A-1250) and ink jet (A-1210) printers
- memory expansion cards (128, 256, and 384 KB)
- Intel 8087 math co-processor
- real time clock
- video card
- expansion interfaces (RS232, parallel, communication and hard-disk)
Several software packages were bundled or available separately: Canobrain (Canon database & data sheet), DBase II, Datastar, Infostar, Calcstar, Wordstar, Spellbinder, Spellstar, Wordmaster, and Gesmail. Several different languages were available, as well: Assembler, GW Basic, Canobasic, Pascal UCSD, Fortran, and Cobol.
The AS-100 does not use any mouse but an innovative jog dialer (see picture).
Simon Schoonens's memories:
Progressing from the CX-1 (see the CX-1's Mini-forum) this machine was another step forward for me. 640K floppies... and yes as shown on this picture 1.2Mb floppies (massive disks) Not too often sold though as a 10 Mb hard drive became available pretty soon. The interface to the floppies and hard disk was SCSI (quite advanced for the time).
It was modular and could even boot from the hard disk. I believe the implementation of MS-DOS was quite poor - we tried it but quickly settled on CPM-86 as it was more powerful. Our software was readily converted form CX-1 to the AS-100.
It had a serial interface and later on there was even a network option (quite crude and which never quite worked) We never sold much of the colour screens mainly the monchrome (green). I worked with it until 1984/85 and then moved to ICL's It was a very popular machine and we sold many.
I still have a complete floppy disk based system in good working order. They were very heavy. The one I have here worked on a daily basis from 1983 to around 1998 with the customer buying up old floppy disks from everywhere to keep it going. I remember the floppy disks were over $A100 per 10. A very reliable machine.
Cees Vos reports to us:
I think the printer on top of this system is the 3852-2 from IBM (made by Canon). It was used with the 3270 terminals and the IBM PC and PS-2 series of PCs.
Shalroth reacts:
The printer is, for my money, Canon PJ-1080A. I had one of these for a while. It was an early colour inkjet with parallel and optional serial interfaces. It used a tricolour cartridge and seperate black cartridge. These were essentially just ink pouches in acrylic cases, with rubber hoses leading to the outside of the case that were punctured inside the printer. If you planned to stop using the printer for any length of time, you were supposed to cap the cartridges using a lever under the paper cover, and hasd to use the same lever to uncap and prime the ink lines (Which you did by pumping the same lever!). In use it was a very quiet but slow printer because it could only form one row of pixels at a time. It also had a very low resolution (about 120 DPI I believe). It was badged and resold in the UK by Integrex for use with the Acorn RISC-OS machines!!!
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Contributors: John J. Diamond (proofreading)
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My father got 4 of these systems in 1985 as point of sale machines in a wholesaling business. They were around AUD$15000 each with with 5 1/4 FDD drives but he was computer mad. He had to upgrade to a networked system in the mid 1990''s but kept these for accounting. They were so reliable despite being in a dirty warehouse their entire lives. He kept using these until he finally ran out of working parts in 2010. I remember them being so heavy but the screens and the click of the keyboards were cool except crap always got stuck under the big enter key. In 2012 one still worked for a few minutes at a time. I reached out to Canon Australia to see if they wanted it for historical reasons. Canon denied the machines existed. I found and sent them the original lease agreements and they still denied these were a Canon machine. They were real pricks about it and told me to "stop whatever scam I was trying". Unfortunately the machine and bits had to go to the tip. Great to see websites like this to keep the memories alive.
Monday 6th February 2023
John Blanchard (Australia)
I think this is a computer I had.
They were used for POS systems in Mobil petrol stations in Australia.
They were _completely impossible_ to get into, the system is snapped into place and then fixed with blind screws in three sections.
Thursday 26th May 2022
david
Hi Ron , do you still have the canon AS-100 for sale ? thanks
Tuesday 3rd August 2021
allez (USA)
NAME
AS-100
MANUFACTURER
Canon
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
Japan
YEAR
october 1982
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke keyboard with function keys, arrow keys and numeric keypad. 98 keys. Characters repetition.
CPU
Intel 8088
SPEED
4.7 Mhz
CO-PROCESSOR
optional Intel 8087 (math. co-processor)
RAM
128 KB (up to 512 KB)
ROM
4 KB (boot)
TEXT MODES
80 x 25 - character matrix : 9 x 7
GRAPHIC MODES
640 x 400 (8 colours)
COLORS
27 colours
SOUND
Built-in speaker
SIZE / WEIGHT
keyboard: 48 x 18,5 x 3,2 cm - 2.2 Kg / monitor: 40 x 34,4 x 43 cm - 19,5 Kg / 5.25'' disks: 8 x 34,4 x 37 cm - 6,3 Kg
I/O PORTS
2 x RS232c, 1 x Centronics
BUILT IN MEDIA
optional 5.25
OS
CP/M 86, MS-DOS, HAI
POWER SUPPLY
Built-in PSU, 120 W
PERIPHERALS
memory expansions (128, 256 or 384 KB), Intel 8087 math. co-processor, real time clock, video card, expansion board (RS232, parallel, communication & hard-disk interfaces)
