Matra Alice

Matra & Hachette Ordinateur Alice

The Matra Alice
Manufacturer	Matra and Hachette
Type	Home computer
Release date	1983; 38 years ago (1983)
Discontinued	1983 (1983)
Operating system	Microsoft BASIC
CPU	Motorola 6803
Memory	4 KiB on-board
Display	Motorola 6847
Input	Cassette interface
Connectivity	RS-232C serial interface
Backward compatibility	TRS-80 MC-10

The colour-coordinated data recorder for the Alice

The Matra & Hachette Ordinateur Alice is a home computer sold in France beginning in 1983. It was a clone of the TRS-80 MC-10, produced through a collaboration between Matra and Hachette in France and Tandy Corporation in the United States.

Alice 32 and cassette deck

The Alice is distinguished by its bright red casing. Functionally, it is equivalent to the MC-10, with a Péritel (SCART) connector replacing the RF modulator for video output.

The Alice never became a popular computer in its home country. It tried to invade schools by being part of the country's Informatique pour tous ("Information technology for everyone") programme, but Thomson won the whole deal.

The original model had 4 kB of RAM and used a Motorola 6847 video display generator chip, as used in the Dragon 32 and Acorn Atom among others.

Specifications[]

• CPU: Motorola 6803
• RAM: 4 KiB on-board
• ROM: 8 KiB (Microsoft BASIC)
• I/O Ports:
  • RS-232C serial interface
  • Cassette interface
  • Péritel video output
  • Expansion interface
• AZERTY keyboard layout

All other specifications should be comparable to those of the TRS-80 MC-10, but have not been confirmed.

Successor Models[]

Matra Alice, Matra Alice 32, Matra Alice 90

Matra later released two successor models:

• The Matra Alice 32 released in 1984 shared the case style of the original, but was a different computer inside, due to using the EF9345 video chip. The Alice 32 had 8 kilobytes of main RAM, 8 kilobytes of dedicated video RAM, and 16 kilobytes ROM (the ROM incorporated an assembler).
• The Matra Alice 90 released in 1985 was an upgrade to the Alice 32, which featured 32 kilobytes of RAM and a full-size case and keyboard. Its video cable included video-in, so EF9345 graphics could be overlaid onto the input video.

The EF9345 video chip in the Matra Alice 32/90 was backwards-compatible with the old model's MC6847 and is capable of displaying 8 colors, 128 alphanumeric characters and 128 semi-graphic characters, with a semigraphic mode, two text modes and eight graphic modes. It was still able to access 16 KiB of VRAM, although the hardware design of the Matra Alice 32 and 90 made use of only 8 KiB.^{[1][circular reference]}

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alice computer.

• Le wiki d'Alice - Everything about Alice (in French)
• Matra Alice — information from The Machine Room
• Matra Alice32 — Alice 32 information complete (in French)
• DCAlice — Alice 32 emulator and information site
• My First Alice32 — Alice 32 emulator
• FAQ on Alice32 — comprehensive FAQ regarding Alice