APC III
The APC III (Advanced Personal Computer) was released by NEC in 1983. An English-speaking market rebrand of the Japanese NEC PC-9801, the APC III was based upon the Intel 8086 processor, with superior specifications to the IBM PC. The computer was well designed from the ground up, and boasted exceptional reliability. It was advertised to business users.
Specification
Overview
The unit had an attractive look, and was physically smaller than an IBM-PC. The compact case included two 51⁄4" half-height disks (two floppies or one floppy and one hard disk), and ample space for standard options (hard disk controller, additional video memory). Special options (including additional system memory) required using expansion slots, of which four were available.
Comparing the IBM PC to the APC III reveals how the two different architectures were derived. The IBM PC had been fast-tracked in an attempt to crack into the home computer market (reference Project Chess), resulting in a machine that actually looked cobbled together, especially internally. Conversely, the APC was truly engineered and showed NEC's considerable experience in the field of consumer electronics.
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