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[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Fujitsu Micro 16s

November 17th, 2014 by Benj Edwards

Fujitsu Micro 16s computer advertisement - 1997The shotgun approach: z80 and 8086 in one box

[ From Personal Computing – November 1983, p.14]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever owned a computer with two different primary CPUs in it?


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9 Responses to “[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Fujitsu Micro 16s”

  1. Daniel Says:
    November 19th, 2014 at 7:11 pm

    I owned a Commodore 128 which had a MOS 6510 processor and a Z80 processor for CP/M compatibility.

  2. Dennis Says:
    November 20th, 2014 at 11:06 am

    I assume by “two primary CPUs in it”, you meant two different kinds of CPUs? Like a Z-80 and 6502 or a 68000 and 8088?

    Because otherwise, most people these days almost certainly have two or more CPU cores in their computing devices.

    As for the question, I think the first machine that I used that had two different processors in it would’ve been the Mac LC (68020 CPU) with the Apple IIe card (65C02 CPU). I remember reading about all sorts of add on boards for Amigas, Macs, the IIgs where you could put in an 8088 card for DOS compatibility. But by the time I started buying my own machines (mid 90s), emulation had started to be something you could actually do on a machine and the need to stick in a different CPU into your computer was not nearly as big of a requirement.

  3. John Says:
    November 20th, 2014 at 5:35 pm

    I also had (and still have) a Commodore 128. The MOS processor was an 8502. The 6510 was in the Commodore 64. The VIC-20 had a 6502. I remember reading catalogs and would dream about one day owning an Amiga 4000 with a Mac daughter card, a IBM PC daughter card and running Commodore emulator software as well! I have an Amiga 2000, but never did get the 4000.

  4. Bill S Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 12:46 am

    yes! I had a C128 with a 6510 and a Zilog Z80. I wish I’d understood CP/M better (at all) so I could take advantage of the faster CPU, that’s for sure…

  5. Alexander Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 3:13 am

    I can think of two machines in my collection.

    One is my H89 with a pair of Z80s (one for the computing board, the other for the terminal board). But that’s two of the same processor.

    The other machine a C128D.

  6. Magnanimus Says:
    November 22nd, 2014 at 1:55 am

    “Have you ever owned a computer with two different primary CPUs in it?”
    Not that I was aware of.

    But I remember Coleco made an Atari adapter to play VCS games. 🙂

  7. Moondog Says:
    November 24th, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    I’m curious what the price comparison was between a multi-cpu system like the one above was compared to two dedicated systems? At first, I imagined the sharing of peripherals would be tricky, however it probably wasn’t that difficult. The Z80 and x86 probably shared quite a bit of support chips and architecture. I imagine it would’ve been harder to make a product such as the Microsoft Softcard or the Mimic Spartan.

  8. M4L3 Says:
    April 26th, 2015 at 1:43 pm

    Remember the Amstrad Mega PC? Didn’t had one, but it featured a i386SX along with a MC68000. It could be used as a PC and a Sega MegaDrive (Genesis). As I remember correctly, the MegaDrive also had a Z80 as it’s sound chip. So it is a triple processor system. 😉

  9. Randall Parker Says:
    June 3rd, 2015 at 2:01 am

    I have a complete fujitsu micro 16s with everything in original packaging. Was wanting to know what it is worth and if anyone is interested.

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