Sharp MZ-2500
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| An MZ-2500 with two built-in 3.5-inch drives and its keyboard (photo: Jun Sasaki, AKIBA PC Hotline!) | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Sharp |
| Type | 8-bit personal computer |
| Released | 1 October 1985 (MZ-2511 and MZ-2521)[1] |
| Intro price | 168,000 yen (MZ-2511), 198,000 yen (MZ-2521)[1] |
| CPU | Z80B at 6 MHz or 4 MHz[2] |
| Memory | 128 KB main RAM (256 KB maximum), 64 KB graphics RAM (128 KB maximum), 14 KB text, attribute and PCG RAM[2] |
| Storage | One or two built-in 3.5-inch drives (640 KB each); built-in voice recorder (cassette)[2] |
| Display | Text 80 or 40 columns by 25, 20 or 12 lines; graphics up to 640 × 400[2] |
| Sound | FM (3 voices) and PSG (3 voices), 8 octaves each[2] |
| ROM | 32 KB IPL and IOCS; 256 KB kanji ROM[3] |
| Power | AC 100 V ±10%, 50/60 Hz, 50 W[2] |
| Dimensions | 350 × 345 × 128 mm (main unit)[2] |
| Weight | 8.3 kg (Model 20), 9.0 kg (Model 30)[2] |
| OS / Firmware | — |
| Predecessor | Sharp MZ-2200 |
| Successor | Sharp MZ-2861 |
| Model no. | MZ-2511, MZ-2521, MZ-2531, MZ-2520 |
The Sharp MZ-2500 is an 8-bit personal computer that Sharp sold in Japan from 1 October 1985, under the name Super MZ.[1] It follows the Sharp MZ-2000 and Sharp MZ-2200 in the line that began with the MZ-80B, and a switch on the front lets it run software for those machines in MZ-2000/2200 and MZ-80B modes.[1][4] The main unit is a separate box with a front-loading cassette deck, which Sharp calls the voice recorder, and one or two 3.5-inch floppy drives; the keyboard connects to it on a coiled cable.[1][2] Its power supply is rated for 100 V ±10% mains.[2]
Models
[edit | edit source]| Model | Released | Price | Differences |
|---|---|---|---|
| MZ-2511 (Model 20) | October 1985 | 168,000 yen | One 3.5-inch drive |
| MZ-2521 (Model 30) | October 1985 | 198,000 yen | Two 3.5-inch drives |
| MZ-2531 (Super MZ V2) | October 1986 | 199,800 yen | MZ-2521 with the dictionary ROM and expansion memory built in, and a television control circuit |
| MZ-2520 | October 1986 | 159,800 yen | Two thin drives; no voice recorder, no MZ-2000 or MZ-80B modes, no front pocket, no external drive connector or RS-232C port B; dictionary ROM built in |
The MZ-2520 also lacks the circuit that swaps the internal and external drive numbers, so some software that uses it, such as Laydock, does not start on that model.[4] Its keyboard connector differs from the other models' and the keyboards cannot be swapped.[4]
Hardware
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Sharp's block diagram shows a single Z80B with 128 KB of program RAM, 64 KB of graphics RAM, 8 KB of text RAM (2 KB character generator and 6 KB PCG), 6 KB of kanji RAM, the 32 KB IPL and IOCS ROM and the kanji ROM, together with interfaces for the CRT, printer, keyboard, mouse, RS-232C, floppy disk, joysticks, voice recorder and audio, FM and PSG sound, and a calendar clock.[3] The clock is backed by a battery.[2]
Nobuaki Ohishi lists the main chips on the MZ-2500 board as an MB8876 floppy disk controller, an LH0081B for the keyboard, an LH0084B for the serial port and mouse, a YM2203 sound chip, an 8255 and an 8253, with Sharp custom parts for the memory controller (TC17G014-0005), I/O control (SC-61K228F), graphics (SC65040-084) and text (SC65040-085), and key controllers LZ91A21 in the main unit and LZ91A17 in the keyboard.[5] The MAME emulator's description of the machine has a 24 MHz master crystal divided by four for the CPU, a Z80 PIO and a Z80 SIO, an RP5C15 real-time clock with a 32.768 kHz crystal, and an MB4107 data separator with the MB8876.[6]
Memory is switched in 8 KB blocks. The Sharp Users Club's study of a UK machine found 128 KB of RAM on the board, a further 128 KB on the optional MZ-1R26 card, video RAM split between the board and the optional MZ-1R27, and a vacant position marked MZ-1M10 on the board.[7] The MZ-1M10 is Sharp's 4,096-colour palette board, which fits inside the case.[4]
3.5-inch drives
[edit | edit source]Sharp's figures for the built-in drives are 1 MB unformatted and 640 KB formatted, with 16 sectors of 256 bytes per track, 80 cylinders and 160 tracks, MFM recording at 250 kbit/s, 135 tracks per inch and a rotation speed of 300 rpm ±2.5%.[2] The spindle has a brushless direct-drive DC servo motor, and a hybrid bipolar stepping motor moves the heads through a needle (lead) screw.[8] An external 5.25-inch drive (MZ-1F02 or MZ-1F07) connects to the rear.[3]
Voice recorder
[edit | edit source]The cassette deck is under software control, records sound as well as data, and reads and writes data at 2,000 bit/s.[2][1] Its heads have two independent tracks, so one track can hold data and the other sound.[4] Sharp gives a tape speed tolerance of ±2.0%, wow and flutter of 0.15% (JIS WRMS) at most, and fast-forward and rewind times of 130 seconds at most for a C-60 cassette.[2] Combined with the optional MZ-1E26 voice communication interface and a modem phone, the deck can act as a telephone answering machine.[1][3]
Controls and connections
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The power switch is on the left side of the case.[1] On the front, the voice recorder has its own counter and EJECT, STOP, PLAY, FF, REW and REC buttons.[9] A drop-down pocket below it holds the mode switch (MZ-2500, MZ-2000/2200 or MZ-80B), the CRT switch for 200 or 400 lines, a volume slider and the RESET and IPL buttons.[1][7] The MiSTer reimplementation describes the line switch as selecting a 15 kHz (200-line) or 24 kHz (400-line) monitor, and the mode switch as read at reset.[10] The keyboard and mouse sockets are at the front right, with a second pair on the right side; only one of each pair can be used at a time.[4]
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The rear panel carries the expansion slot covers, the external floppy connector, two joystick ports, monochrome and colour CRT outputs each with a digital or analogue switch, a DIP switch marked SYSTEM, the CRT control jacks, the printer port, the two RS-232C ports, the modem phone (VOICE) and audio connectors, a mains service outlet marked MAX 5A, the AC 100 V inlet and a POWER SELECT switch marked NORMAL and REMOTE.[1][11] AKIBA PC Hotline! describes the POWER SELECT switch as a standby power switch for answering incoming telephone calls automatically.[1]
Start-up keys
[edit | edit source]Keys held down while the IPL starts change how the machine boots. The owner's manual of the MZ-2511 and MZ-2521 lists these:[4]
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
| / | Load and run a program from a ROM in I/O space |
| E | Swap the internal drives (as FD3 and FD4) with the external drives (as FD1 and FD2) |
| R | Set the RS-232C speed in MZ-2000 and MZ-80B modes (19,200 to 150 bit/s; 9,600 bit/s if not pressed) |
| C | Boot from the voice recorder whatever the mode |
| 1, 2, 3, 4 | Boot from drive FD1, FD2, FD3 or FD4 |
Japanese Wikipedia also lists undocumented keys from Dempa Shinbunsha's Super MZ 活用研究 (page 260): B runs a test of main and graphics RAM in 46 blocks and shows "No" or "Good" for each, G leaves the graphics RAM uncleared, and X and Z start MZ-80B and MZ-2000 modes at 6 MHz. Some of these were removed on later models.[4] Holding HELP at power-on offers a choice between BASIC-M25 and BASIC-S25.[3]
Documentation
[edit | edit source]The documents known to exist are:
- The owner's manual (B5, 225 pages for the MZ-2500 and 254 pages for the MZ-2500 V2), with separate BASIC-M25 and BASIC-S25 manuals and a telephone software manual.[12]
- Kogakusha's MZ-2500 テクニカル・マニュアル, with IOCS information and the full circuit diagrams, and Dempa Shinbunsha's Super MZ 活用研究, with hardware descriptions and I/O maps.[4][13]
- Sharp's 1985 dealer material, scanned by Nobuaki Ohishi: the Super MZ 新製品紹介資料 introduction and the Super MZ booklet, with specifications, the block diagram and drive and voice recorder performance figures.[3][2]
Repair guides
[edit | edit source]- Sharp MZ-2500 General Maintenance
- Sharp MZ-2500 Troubleshooting Guide
- Sharp MZ-2500 Capacitor Replacement Guide
Gallery
[edit | edit source]-
MZ-2500 with keyboard -
Front, with the pocket open -
Left side and power switch -
Rear panel -
Sharp's block diagram
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Related pages
[edit | edit source]- Sharp MZ-2000 and Sharp MZ-2200, whose software runs in the MZ-2000/2200 mode
- Sharp MZ-2861, the successor, which has an MZ-2500 mode
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 MZ-80Bシリーズの流れを汲む"スーパーMZ"こと「シャープ MZ-2500」– Jun Sasaki, AKIBA PC Hotline! (Impress), 5 January 2022—link(accessed 2026-10-21) Released 1 October 1985 as the Model 20 MZ-2511 (one drive, 168,000 yen) and Model 30 MZ-2521 (two drives, 198,000 yen); front cassette deck and two vertically stacked 3.5-inch drives; front pocket with mode switch, CRT raster switch (200 or 400 lines), volume slider, RESET and IPL buttons; power switch on the left side; rear panel connectors; voice recorder reads and writes data at 2,000 bit/s and records and plays sound; MZ-2531 (Super MZ V2, 199,800 yen) and MZ-2520 (159,800 yen, no voice recorder or compatibility modes, dictionary ROM built in) released the following year; MZ-80B mode displays in black and white.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 Sharp, Super MZ (dealer booklet, 1985), scan at 冊子「Super MZ」, Internet Archive (uploaded by Nobuaki Ohishi)—link(accessed 2026-10-21) Printed page 33 (PDF page 34), main unit specifications: Z-80B at 6 or 4 MHz; IPL and IOCS ROM 32 KB; kanji ROM (JIS levels 1 and 2); main memory 128 KB, expandable to 256 KB; text, attribute and PCG memory 14 KB; graphics memory 64 KB, expandable to 128 KB; calendar clock backed by a battery; two 3.5-inch drives (Model 30) or one (Model 20), 640 KB formatted each, and a 5.25-inch drive can be connected; voice recorder with sound recording and data read and write at 2,000 bit/s; PSG and FM sound, each 8 octaves and 3 voices; power AC 100 V ±10%, 50/60 Hz, consumption 50 W; 10 to 35 °C, 20 to 80% humidity without condensation; main unit 350 × 345 × 128 mm, 8.3 kg (Model 20) or 9.0 kg (Model 30); keyboard 410 × 196 × 38 mm, 1.4 kg. Also the 3.5-inch drive and voice recorder performance tables on the same page.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Sharp, Super MZ 新製品紹介資料 (Super MZ new product introduction, dealer booklet, 1985), scan at Super MZ 新製品紹介資料, Internet Archive (uploaded by Nobuaki Ohishi)—link(accessed 2026-10-21) Printed page 5 (PDF page 8), main unit specifications: ROM IPL/IOCS 32 KB, kanji (JIS levels 1 and 2) 256 KB, telephone software 16 KB (sold separately); interfaces as standard: CRT (video B/W, RGB, RGBI, linear RGB), printer (Centronics or MZ type), RS-232C on two channels with 9-pin and 25-pin connectors (channel A for the modem phone; channel B has the same connector as the MZ-8BI03 and supports MZ-2000 RS-232C equipment), voice recorder, 5-inch floppy (MZ-1F02 or MZ-1F07), mouse and two Atari-type joystick ports; MZ-2000, MZ-2200 and MZ-80B interface cards usable in the corresponding modes. Printed page 6 (PDF page 9): holding HELP at power-on brings up a choice of BASIC M-25 or BASIC S-25. Printed page 15 (PDF page 18): block diagram of the main unit.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 MZ-2500, Wikipedia (Japanese)—link(accessed 2026-10-21) Model list with release months and prices; MZ-2531 adds the dictionary ROM, extra main memory and video RAM and a television control circuit; MZ-2520 drops the voice recorder, the MZ-2000 and MZ-80B modes, RS-232C port B and the external drive connector, has thin drives and no front pocket, and does not support the palette board; the pocket's volume control and buttons on the MZ-2511, MZ-2521 and MZ-2531 tend to develop poor contacts with age; two keyboard sockets and two mouse sockets (front right and right side), only one of each usable at a time; keys held at IPL start and their functions; the MZ-2861 is the successor.
- ↑ MZ-2800– Nobuaki Ohishi, Nibbles lab. Sharp museum—link(accessed 2026-10-21) Table of the LSIs used in the MZ-2800 and the MZ-2500; the MZ-2800's MZ-2500 mode and its incompatibility with Z80 PIO boards in the 8-bit slots; front panel mode switch; X and Z keys at IPL start give 6 MHz MZ-80B and MZ-2000 modes.
- ↑ mz2500.cpp, MAME source code—link(accessed 2026-10-21) Machine configuration: Z80 at 24 MHz/4; Z80 PIO and Z80 SIO at 24 MHz/4; RP5C15 with a 32.768 kHz crystal; 8253 clocked from 24 MHz/768; MB8876 floppy controller "clocked by MB4107 VFO"; YM2203 at 24 MHz/12; 8255.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Recap of the MZ-2500– Maurice Hawes, sharpmz.net (from SUC magazine, November 2002, vol. 22 no. 3, pp. 11-14)—link(accessed 2026-10-21) A base unit from Sharp's Wrexham factory was run from a temporary 100 V 50 Hz supply; an MZ-5600 mono monitor showed the IPL message "Insert System Disk"; 8 KB memory blocks with 128 KB on board, 128 KB on the MZ-1R26 card and video RAM split between the board and the MZ-1R27; a vacant slot marked MZ-1M10 on the motherboard; front panel controls MODE (MZ-2500, MZ-2200, MZ-80B), RESOLUTION, VOLUME, RESET and IPL.
- ↑ Sharp, Super MZ (1985), printed page 15 (PDF page 16): 3.5-inch drive mechanism with tunnel-erase heads of single-crystal ferrite; positioning by a needle screw driven by a hybrid bipolar stepping motor; brushless direct-drive DC servo spindle motor; index detected from the motor signal; scan at 冊子「Super MZ」, Internet Archive—link(accessed 2026-10-21)
- ↑ Front panel photograph, AKIBA PC Hotline! (5 January 2022), hosted as File:Sharp MZ-2500 front panel (AKIBA PC Hotline).jpg: POWER lamp, earphone and microphone jacks, tape counter, EJECT, STOP, PLAY, FF, REW and REC buttons; open pocket with MODE, CRT, VOLUME, RESET and IPL; drives 1 and 2; keyboard and mouse sockets.
- ↑ Sharp MZ-2500 / MZ-2520 for MiSTer, GitHub (alanswx)—link(accessed 2026-10-21) OSD items: "Lines: 400 (24 kHz monitor, the default) or 200 (15 kHz): the machine's front switch; software reads it"; "Boot mode: MZ-2500, MZ-2000 or MZ-80B: the mode switch, read at reset".
- ↑ Rear panel photograph, AKIBA PC Hotline! (5 January 2022), hosted as File:Sharp MZ-2500 rear panel (AKIBA PC Hotline).jpg: labels EXTENSION FLOPPY DISK, 1 - JOYSTICK - 2, MAX 5A, POWER SELECT (NORMAL, REMOTE), FG, AC 100V, DIGITAL/ANALOG switches beside the B/W CRT and COLOR CRT sockets, SYSTEM, CONTROL H and V, PRINTER, RS-232C(B), RS-232C(A), VOICE and AUDIO.
- ↑ MZ manual PDF project– Nobuaki Ohishi, Nibbles lab.—link(accessed 2026-10-21) List of manuals held, with sizes and page counts: MZ-2500 owner's manual B5, 225 pages; MZ-2500 V2 owner's manual B5, 254 pages; BASIC-M25 manual (V2) 480 pages; BASIC-S25 manual (V2) 332 pages; telephone software manual 151 pages; MZ-2800 owner's manual B5, 169 pages.
- ↑ MZ (コンピュータ), Wikipedia (Japanese)—link(accessed 2026-10-21) Owner's manuals up to the MZ-2200 included the circuit diagrams; the MZ-2500's circuits were published in Dempa Shinbunsha's Super MZ 活用研究, Kogakusha's MZ-2500 テクニカル・マニュアル (Super Series 1, whose diagrams omit the page and grid references for signal destinations) and in Oh!MZ.