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The MSX System

On this page, you find a short presentation of the MSX system with his 5 generations

These machines can be viewed as the first steps to the creation of the MSX standard.

ColecoVision, Sega SG-1000, SC-3000 and SF-7000 have the same CPU and Video Display Processor (VDP) than the MSX1 machines; they use the Texas Instrument SN76489 sound chip, that is very close to the Programmable Sound Generator (PSG) of the MSX1 machines.

In the SVI318/328 computers, CPU, VDP and PSG are the same than in the MSX1 machines ; the SVI-BASIC is very close to the MSX-BASIC.

The SEGA BASIC, used on the SC-3000 and SF-7000 computers, has also many similarities with the MSX-BASIC.

Main characteristics of the MSX1 machines :

- CPU Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit)
- RAM between 8 Kb and 64 Kb
- MSX BASIC version 1.0
- Video Display Processor : Texas Instruments TMS-9918/TMS-9928/TMS-9929
- Video RAM (VRAM)16kB
- General Instruments AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator.

Many MSX1s use hardware by different brands, eg. Sharp/Zilog/SGS Z80, TMS/Toshiba/Yamaha VDP, GI/Yamaha PSG. The differences are minor but haven't yet been emulated

Remark : Forte II Games is a Brazilian MSX1 arcade board. As on the real machine, you need to insert a coin before playing the embedded game (Knightmare in a slightly modified version) : you can do that by pressing on the "C" key, then on the real or virtual joystick button(as this board comes without any keyboard).

Main characteristics of the MSX2 machines :

- CPU Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit)
- RAM between 64 Kb and 256 Kb (expandable)
- Memory Mapper system
- MSX BASIC version 2.0 / 2.1
- Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9938
- Video RAM (VRAM) 64 Kb or 128 Kb
- General Instruments AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator or compatible (Yamaha YM2149)

Z80 is inside the MSX Engine, probably not Zilog, but a clone.

Main characteristics of the MSX2+ machines :

- CPU Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit) switchable on some machines to 5,369 MHz
- RAM 64 Kb (expandable)
- Memory mapper system
- MSX BASIC version 3.0
- Video Display Processor : Yamaha V9958
- Video RAM (VRAM) 128 Kb
- General Instruments AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator or compatible (Yamaha YM2149)
- Most machines have built-in MSX-MUSIC (Yamaha OPLL YM-2413)

Z80 is inside the MSX Engine, probably not Zilog, but a clone.

Main characteristics of the MSXturboR machines :

- RISC CPU R800 (DAR800-X0G), 7,159 MHz (16-bit)
- CPU Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit)
- RAM 256 Kb or 512 Kb (expandable)
- Memory mapper system
- MSX BASIC version 4.0 / 4.1
- Video Display Processor : Yamaha V9958
- Video RAM (VRAM) 128 Kb
- Yamaha YM2149 Programmable Sound Generator
- Built-in MSX-MUSIC (Yamaha OPLL YM-2413)
- PCM synthesizer 8-bit (sample rate 16kHz)
- The MSXturboR GT has built-in MSX-MIDI interface

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