MBC-550

Original Sanyo MBC-550 demo written in BASIC at 27-9-1983. See full sourcecode of the demo

The MBC-550 was a small and inexpensive personal computer in "pizza-box" style, featuring an Intel 8088 microprocessor and running a version of MS-DOS. It was the lowest-cost of the early IBM PC compatibles^[1] and was produced by Sanyo.

It had somewhat better video display possibilities than the average CGA card (8 colors at 640x200 resolution, vs CGA's 4 colors at 320x200 or 2 colors at 640x200), but it was not completely compatible with the IBM-PC. It lacked a standard BIOS, having only a minimal bootloader in ROM that accessed hardware directly to load a RAM-based BIOS.^[2] It was sold alongside the Sanyo MBC-555 which had two 5¼" drives instead of just one.

By August 1985 InfoWorld reported that Sanyo "has initiated a campaign to sell off" its MBC-550 inventory. The company's newer computers were, an executive claimed, 99% PC compatible.^[3]

References

1. ↑ Jon Geist (September 1984). "Sanyo 555 Small Business Computers" 10 (9). Creative Computing. p. 12. 
2. ↑ John Elliott (2006-04-30). "The Sanyo MBC550". Retrieved 2014-07-14. 
3. ↑ Bannister, Hank (1985-08-26). "Sanyo Clears Deck of 550s". InfoWorld. p. 28. Retrieved 5 January 2015.