Sord M5

 Home > Browse Our Collection > Computers > Sord / CGL > Sord M5
 

The Sord M5 was a Japanese home computer launched in 1982. It was also sold as the CGL M5 in the UK by Computer Games Limited. This entry refers to the original Japanese version.

The Company name is a shortening of the two words SOftware HaRDware, and they had already produced the moderately successful Sord M23 among others.

The processor was a Zilog Z80, running at 3.58 MHz. The M5 had 4K RAM, which was expandable to 32K, and 16K VRAM. The 8K ROM was expandable to 16K with a ROM cartridge. Video hardware consisted of 24x40 text (8x6 characters), 224 user defined characters, 256x192 graphics, 16 colours, 32 hardware sprites (up to 16x16 pixels). Sound hardware had three sound channels, one noise channel, six octaves, and 15 amplitude levels.

The M5 came with Basic-I on a cartridge, which was very similar to the standard Microsoft with a few differences in the keywords, and came with a number of additional commands which dealt with the manipulation of sprites. Basic-G (graphics) and BASIC-F (floating point arithmetic) were also available on cartridge.

It had a 55-key membrane keyboard, similar to the Sinclair Spectrum, but the keys had the bottom right corner chopped off them. There were two shift keys, and no space bar. There was a slot for the ROM cartridge, a built-in Centronics printer interface, and ports for the joypads that came with the computer, cassette, and TV.

The Sord M5 sold for £189.95.

Manufacturer: Sord
Date: 1982



Comment on This Page

Sord M5 Manuals:

Item Manufacturer Date
Sord M5 Users Guide Sord Computer Corporation 1983
Sord M5 Basic-G Manual Sord Computer Corporation Apr 1983
CGL Sord M5 Basic-I Manual Sord Computer Corporation May 1983

Magazines RELATED to Sord M5 in our Library

Item Manufacturer Date
Personal Computer World - August 1983 Aug 1983

Other Systems Related To Sord M5:

Item Manufacturer Date
Sord M23 Mark III Sord 1980
CGL Sord M5 Sord 1982

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH47092. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

 

Sord M5

  Games Archive   [10]
  Software Archive   [8]
  Peripherals   [2]

Click on the Image(s) For Detail


Articles

Help support the museum by buying from the museum shop

View all items

Founding Sponsors
redgate Google ARM Real VNC Microsoft Research
Heritage Lottery Funded
Heritage Lottery Fund
Accredited Museum