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AX architecture

April 11, 2024

AX (Architecture eXtended) was a Japanese computing initiative starting in around 1986 to allow PCs to handle double-byte (DBCS) Japanese text via special hardware chips, whilst allowing compatibility with software written for foreign IBM PCs.

Advert of an AX machine

History edit

The idea was conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi before he resigned his position as vice president of Microsoft.[1] Microsoft Japan took over the project, and in July 1987 the Preparatory Committee of the AX Consortium started developing its specification.

The AX Consortium officially started in October 1987, including ASCII Corporation, Sony, Hitachi, Sharp, Oki, Casio, Canon, Kyocera, Sanyo, Mitsubishi Electric, etc., but notably excluding Toshiba and Fujitsu (who were hence the 'opposition').[1][2]

At that time, NEC PC-9801 was the dominant PC architecture in the Japanese PC market because IBM PC/AT and its clone PCs could not display Japanese text.[3] However, NEC did not tolerate PC-9801 compatible machines and was fighting court battles with Epson which was the only PC-9801 compatible machine vendor. Therefore, other vendors desperately needed a standard specification for Japanese capable PCs.

Eventually two standards were developed: JEGA and AX-VGA.

Due to less available software and its higher cost compared to the PC-9801 series, AX failed and was not able to break into the market in Japan. The Nikkei Personal Computing journal reported in 1989 that only 18 out of 36,165 PCs used in 937 companies were AX machines, and 90% of companies had no plan to purchase the AX machine.[4]

In 1990, IBM Japan unveiled DOS/V which enabled IBM PC/AT and its clones to display Japanese text without any additional hardware using a standard VGA card.[5] Soon after, AX disappeared and the decline of NEC PC-9801 began.[6]

AX architecture machines edit

Several companies released AX computers:

JEGA edit

JEGA
 
Release date1987; 37 years ago (1987)
Designed byASCII, Chips & Technologies
ArchitectureP82C435 and V6367
History
PredecessorEGA

To display Kanji characters with sufficient clarity, AX machines had JEGA [ja] screens with a resolution of 640 × 480 rather than the 640 × 350 standard EGA resolution prevalent elsewhere at the time.[7][8][9] JEGA was developed jointly by ASCII and Chips & Technologies, combining the P82C435 and V6367 video chips.[10] Users could typically switch between Japanese and English modes by typing JP and US, which would also invoke the AX-BIOS and an IME enabling the input of Japanese characters.

In addition to the modes provided by EGA, JEGA supports the following display modes as standard:

  • 80 × 25 character text display, effective resolution 640 × 480 pixels, 8 pages: overwrites modes 2h (graphic screen and overlaid display) and 3h of EGA;
  • 640 × 480 pixels graphics: 1 page or 1 page overlaid with text screen.

AX-VGA edit

IBM released the VGA standard soon after AX was introduced. Since the AX architecture was not compatible with the new standard, the AX consortium had to design a VGA compatible chipset .

This was called AX-VGA [ja] and could be implemented in two ways:

  • AX-VGA/H, a hardware implementation based on the AX-BIOS;
  • AX-VGA/S, a software emulation. [11]

Development of the AX-VGA chipset was delayed, and its first implementation came out in 1991.[12][13][14] By that time, DOS/V was already available, allowing standard IBM PC compatibles to display Japanese text using a VGA card.[5] The need for AX was gone and further developments were discontinued.[6]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b コンピュータ・ニュース社, ed. (1988). "「パソコン産業史」年表". 100万人の謎を解く ザ・PCの系譜 (in Japanese). コンピュータ・ニュース社. pp. 40–57. ISBN 4-8061-0316-0.
  2. ^ Methe; Miyabe; Toyama; Mitchell (January 1998). Methe, David & Miyabe, J. & Toyama, R. & Mitchell, Will. (1998). Overcoming a Standard Bearer: Challenges to NEC's Personal Computer in Japan. Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
  3. ^ Schilke, Steffen (1992). Japanization (PDF). p. 140.
  4. ^ 松岡, 資明; 中川, 貴雄; 礒田, 温之; 西村, 裕 (1989-04-10). "調査：パソコン・シェア 企業はPS/55、家庭はPC-9800". 日経パソコン (in Japanese). Nikkei Business Publications: 280–281. ISSN 0287-9506.
  5. ^ a b West; Dedrick (November 30, 1996). Competing through Standards: DOS/V and Japan's PC Market (PDF). Center for Research on Information Technologies and Organizations, University of California, Irvine.
  6. ^ a b West, Joel; Dedrick, Jason (2000). "Innovation and Control in Standards Architectures: The Rise and Fall of Japan's PC-98". Information Systems Research. 11 (2): 197–216. doi:10.1287/isre.11.2.197.11778. ISSN 1047-7047. JSTOR 23015882.
  7. ^ Auckerman (February 1996). "Overcoming the Obstacles to Business Success in Japan". Computing Japan Magazine.
  8. ^ "Insider's Computer Dictionary：JEGA とは？ - ＠IT". atmarkit.itmedia.co.jp. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  9. ^ Sandy. "Video/Japanese Display Adapter For High Quality Japanese Fonts". PS/55, Japanese PS/2. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  10. ^ "ASCII EXPRESS: IBM PC/AT compatible unified Japanese standard "AX" solidifies. It will be released by each company next spring”. ASCII 1987.10 .
  11. ^ Krusher (2018-09-04). "Graphics cards of the IBM era". Nobody comes after the last. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  12. ^ "新製品ニュース HARD". 事務と経営 (in Japanese). 43 (542): 90. July 1991 – via National Diet Library Digital Collections.
  13. ^ CBR Staff Writer (June 3, 1991). "HITACHI DELAY IN AX SPEC PC DELIVERY". Tech Monitor.
  14. ^ "FLORA 3020/3010 Series". Information Processing Society of Japan Computer Museum. Retrieved 2023-02-28.

Further reading edit

  • Myers, Steven; Smith, Greg (March 1995). "DOS/V: The Soft(ware) Solution to Hard(ware) Problems". Computing Japan Magazine. from the original on 2017-01-15. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  • Boyd, John (April 1997). "From Chaos to Competition - Japan's PC industry in transformation". Computing Japan Magazine. from the original on 2017-01-16. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  • Dünßer, Elmar (2015) [2005]. "Die AX Computer (Japan) - 1988-1993" (in German). from the original on 2017-01-17. Retrieved 2017-01-16.

External links edit

  • (information from a Japanese computer museum)
  • (information from a Japanese computer museum)
 

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April 11, 2024
architecture, help, expand, this, article, with, text, translated, from, corresponding, article, japanese, january, 2017, click, show, important, translation, instructions, machine, translation, like, deepl, google, translate, useful, starting, point, translat. You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese January 2017 Click show for important translation instructions Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate rather than simply copy pasting machine translated text into the English Wikipedia Consider adding a topic to this template there are already 3 809 articles in the main category and specifying topic will aid in categorization Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low quality If possible verify the text with references provided in the foreign language article You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at ja AX see its history for attribution You should also add the template Translated ja AX to the talk page For more guidance see Wikipedia Translation AX Architecture eXtended was a Japanese computing initiative starting in around 1986 to allow PCs to handle double byte DBCS Japanese text via special hardware chips whilst allowing compatibility with software written for foreign IBM PCs Advert of an AX machine Contents 1 History 1 1 AX architecture machines 2 JEGA 3 AX VGA 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksHistory editThe idea was conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi before he resigned his position as vice president of Microsoft 1 Microsoft Japan took over the project and in July 1987 the Preparatory Committee of the AX Consortium started developing its specification The AX Consortium officially started in October 1987 including ASCII Corporation Sony Hitachi Sharp Oki Casio Canon Kyocera Sanyo Mitsubishi Electric etc but notably excluding Toshiba and Fujitsu who were hence the opposition 1 2 At that time NEC PC 9801 was the dominant PC architecture in the Japanese PC market because IBM PC AT and its clone PCs could not display Japanese text 3 However NEC did not tolerate PC 9801 compatible machines and was fighting court battles with Epson which was the only PC 9801 compatible machine vendor Therefore other vendors desperately needed a standard specification for Japanese capable PCs Eventually two standards were developed JEGA and AX VGA Due to less available software and its higher cost compared to the PC 9801 series AX failed and was not able to break into the market in Japan The Nikkei Personal Computing journal reported in 1989 that only 18 out of 36 165 PCs used in 937 companies were AX machines and 90 of companies had no plan to purchase the AX machine 4 In 1990 IBM Japan unveiled DOS V which enabled IBM PC AT and its clones to display Japanese text without any additional hardware using a standard VGA card 5 Soon after AX disappeared and the decline of NEC PC 9801 began 6 AX architecture machines edit Several companies released AX computers Oki Electric Industry if386AX30 50 series Casio Computer AX 8000D 8000L Canon Axi DX 20 20P 10 10P Kyocera AX386 model A Sanyo Electric MCB 17 18 series Sharp AX286D 286L AX386 MZ 8000 Sony Quarter L PCX 300 series Acer ACER1100 1200 1170 NCR PC AXL PC AX32 Hitachi FLORA 3010 3020 series Mitsubishi Electric MAXY M3201 M3202 M3205 Yokogawa Hewlett Packard Vectra AX seriesJEGA editJEGA nbsp Release date1987 37 years ago 1987 Designed byASCII Chips amp TechnologiesArchitectureP82C435 and V6367HistoryPredecessorEGATo display Kanji characters with sufficient clarity AX machines had JEGA ja screens with a resolution of 640 480 rather than the 640 350 standard EGA resolution prevalent elsewhere at the time 7 8 9 JEGA was developed jointly by ASCII and Chips amp Technologies combining the P82C435 and V6367 video chips 10 Users could typically switch between Japanese and English modes by typing JP and US which would also invoke the AX BIOS and an IME enabling the input of Japanese characters In addition to the modes provided by EGA JEGA supports the following display modes as standard 80 25 character text display effective resolution 640 480 pixels 8 pages overwrites modes 2h graphic screen and overlaid display and 3h of EGA 640 480 pixels graphics 1 page or 1 page overlaid with text screen AX VGA editIBM released the VGA standard soon after AX was introduced Since the AX architecture was not compatible with the new standard the AX consortium had to design a VGA compatible chipset This was called AX VGA ja and could be implemented in two ways AX VGA H a hardware implementation based on the AX BIOS AX VGA S a software emulation 11 Development of the AX VGA chipset was delayed and its first implementation came out in 1991 12 13 14 By that time DOS V was already available allowing standard IBM PC compatibles to display Japanese text using a VGA card 5 The need for AX was gone and further developments were discontinued 6 See also editDOS DOS V Shift JIS PC Open Architecture Developers Group OADG References edit a b コンピュータ ニュース社 ed 1988 パソコン産業史 年表 100万人の謎を解く ザ PCの系譜 in Japanese コンピュータ ニュース社 pp 40 57 ISBN 4 8061 0316 0 Methe Miyabe Toyama Mitchell January 1998 Methe David amp Miyabe J amp Toyama R amp Mitchell Will 1998 Overcoming a Standard Bearer Challenges to NEC s Personal Computer in Japan Research Institute for Economics amp Business Administration Kobe University Schilke Steffen 1992 Japanization PDF p 140 松岡 資明 中川 貴雄 礒田 温之 西村 裕 1989 04 10 調査 パソコン シェア 企業はPS 55 家庭はPC 9800 日経パソコン in Japanese Nikkei Business Publications 280 281 ISSN 0287 9506 a b West Dedrick November 30 1996 Competing through Standards DOS V and Japan s PC Market PDF Center for Research on Information Technologies and Organizations University of California Irvine a b West Joel Dedrick Jason 2000 Innovation and Control in Standards Architectures The Rise and Fall of Japan s PC 98 Information Systems Research 11 2 197 216 doi 10 1287 isre 11 2 197 11778 ISSN 1047 7047 JSTOR 23015882 Auckerman February 1996 Overcoming the Obstacles to Business Success in Japan Computing Japan Magazine Insider s Computer Dictionary JEGA とは IT atmarkit itmedia co jp Retrieved 2023 02 28 Sandy Video Japanese Display Adapter For High Quality Japanese Fonts PS 55 Japanese PS 2 Retrieved 2023 02 28 ASCII EXPRESS IBM PC AT compatible unified Japanese standard AX solidifies It will be released by each company next spring ASCII 1987 10 Krusher 2018 09 04 Graphics cards of the IBM era Nobody comes after the last Retrieved 2023 02 28 新製品ニュース HARD 事務と経営 in Japanese 43 542 90 July 1991 via National Diet Library Digital Collections CBR Staff Writer June 3 1991 HITACHI DELAY IN AX SPEC PC DELIVERY Tech Monitor FLORA 3020 3010 Series Information Processing Society of Japan Computer Museum Retrieved 2023 02 28 Further reading editMyers Steven Smith Greg March 1995 DOS V The Soft ware Solution to Hard ware Problems Computing Japan Magazine Archived from the original on 2017 01 15 Retrieved 2017 01 15 Boyd John April 1997 From Chaos to Competition Japan s PC industry in transformation Computing Japan Magazine Archived from the original on 2017 01 16 Retrieved 2017 01 16 Dunsser Elmar 2015 2005 Die AX Computer Japan 1988 1993 in German Archived from the original on 2017 01 17 Retrieved 2017 01 16 External links editMitsubishi Maxy information from a Japanese computer museum Oki if386AX information from a Japanese computer museum nbsp This computer graphics related article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title AX architecture amp oldid 1213262581, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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