Amstrad Notepad NC100
Amstrad released the NC100 in 1992, but it remains a useful tool for anyone seeking a writing device that operates without the distraction of the Internet. The monochrome LCD screen is limited, of course — 80 x 8 characters — but it can be read in all but the weakest light (no backlight, alas). The machine runs off four AA batteries, and for a long time too, I’ve found, but there’s an optional AC adaptor if you can find one. A CR2032 coin cell protects RAM contents when the main cells are changed.
The Amstrad NC100 notepad computer
RAM content protection? Yes, the NC100 has no storage, just 64KB of RAM, of which approximately 16KB is reserved for the display memory and sections of the 256KB ROM which are paged into the machine’s Z80 processor’s 64KB addressable memory space as required. RAM operates as memory and as storage.
Fortunately, the NC100 has built-in comms software — alongside its very usable word processor and BBC Basic implementation — so it’s straightforward to back up files to a modern computer or (as I do) for final editing before being posted to a blog or other website.
The NC100 can also accept PCMCIA/PC Card battery-backed SRAM cards of up to 1MB in size. Flash is not supported, apparently, but I have not confirmed this. With an SRAM card in place, the NC100 uses that for document storage in preference to RAM. You should be aware that suitable cards are not only rare but very expensive.
NC100 Guides
NC100 Books
These are out-of-print, hard-to-find books and texts published in the 1990s by Amstrad and third-parties. I have cleaned up scans from various sites to produce the best-quality versions currently available to NC100 users.
Amstrad NC100 I/O Specification — A reproduction of NC-series operating system routines and other useful information for programmers. Originally written by Cliff Lawson and provided as a printout to users who wrote to Amstrad.
Amstrad NC100 Surgical Guide — A reproduction of Hans-Jürgen Böhling’s 1990s guide to the internals components and organization of the NC100 hardware.
Amstrad Notepad Advanced User Guide — Written by Robin Nixon (Chris Nixon wrote the many programs included) and offered by Sigma Press to advanced users as the follow on to the NC100 manual. There’s some very useful information here.
These book have been restored and are offered free of charge for the NC100 community in order to preserve them as historical records. However, they remain the copyright of their respective authors. If you are a copyright holder of one or more of the shared works and would prefer that they not be included, please get in touch via books at smittytone.net.