FM Towns

"The Japanese Multimedia PC"

Manufactured by Fujitsu from early 1989 to 1997, FM Towns is a Japanese multimedia computer based on x86 Intel CPUs and a CD-ROM drive. The computer offered a 24-bit color palette, hardware graphics, and sound capabilities similar to an arcade system

• About 500,000 FM Towns were ever sold
• The initial price was 338,000 yen (something like $3,000 in today’s money)
• "FM" means Fujitsu Micro
• Started as a proprietary PC variant (with some PC compatibility)

The Older Fujitsu FM R series

Released in 1987, the Fujitsu FM R series was based too on Intel CPUs and MS-DOS V3.1.

FM TOWNS AT A GLANCE

• Towns OS, based on MS-DOS and Windows 3.0/3.1/95
• 80386SX (16 MHz) to 486DX4 (100 MHz) CPUs and up to Pentium (Socket5/120 MHz)
• One of the first computers in the world to be equipped with a CD-ROM drive
• Fully supporting multimedia applications and featuring arcade-perfect video games
• Stereo PCM sound (Ricoh RF5c68 and Yamaha YM2612)
• 1 MB to 6 MB of RAM
• Up to 32,768 colors on screen from a 16.7 million color palette (24-bit)
• 320×200 to 720×512 pixels video modes
• 640 KB of total video RAM (512 KB VRAM and 128 KB sprite RAM)
• PCMCIA card (can accommodate memory cards, modems, printers, etc.)

Colors & Graphic Modes

The FM Towns featured advanced video graphics for its time:

• 16 to 32,768 simultaneous colors from a 16 million color palette (24-bit)
• 320×200 to 720×512 pixels video modes
• Up to two graphical layers can be overlaid
• 640 KB of total video RAM (512 KB VRAM and 128 KB sprite RAM)
• Up to 1,024 sprites (16×16 pixels each)

Sound Capabilities

FMTowns offers quite impressive sound capabilities. Note, that the built-in Ricoh RF5c68 sound chip is also found in Sega's System 18/32 arcade system boards.

• 8-bit to 10-bit audio bit depth
• 8 PCM voices based on the Ricoh RF5c68 sound chip (19.6 kHz)
• 6 FM channels based on the (Yamaha YM2612 sound chip
• Can play regular audio CDs
• Microphone (in the front)

Operating System & Software

The FM Towns offered Towns OS, based on MS-DOS plus Ms. Windows. There was some compatibility with classic PCs and the earlier Fujitsu FM R, and that meant access to business software such as Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE III, and WordStar.

• The operating system was Towns OS, based on MS-DOS, plus Windows 3.0/3.1/95
• The FM Towns was capable of booting its GUI straight from CD, before any other CD-ROM-based computer system
• Some compatibility with classic PCs by using a special version of DOS and DOS Extender
• Linux has also been ported to the FM Towns (Debian and Gentoo)

Related Models: FM Towns Variants

There were several FM Towns variants by Fujitsu:

• FM TOWNS (model1/model2)

The original FM TOWNS (model1/model2) was based on an 80386SX CPU running at 16 MHz, 1/2 MB of RAM (with a possible maximum of 6 MB), and a single-speed CD-ROM drive. There were also two 3.5" floppy disk drives and a PCMCIA memory card slot. The computer was bundled with a mouse, a gamepad, and a microphone.

• Other models used 486DX4 (100 MHz) CPUs and up to Pentium (Socket5/120 MHz)
• FM Towns Marty was a game console version of the system, released in 1993. It sold around 45,000 in 1993

□ Fujitsu FM Towns

BinaryValue.com (c)

Sources:

• https://www.fujitsu.com/
• Wikipedia.com
• https://monochromeeffect.org/JVCC/2019/07/26/towns-os/