Philips PCD 200

Philips PCD 200 is a typical example of branded (not assembled from Taiwanese parts) 286 from early 1990s. It has fast 12MHz 286 CPU, RAM in 30-pin SIMM sticks and 40 or 60MB ATA hard disk. While maintaining a small case it was possible to add 2 ISA slots using riser board. In mainboard, there were serial and parallel ports as well as disk drives controllers and VGA graphics chip allowing to get even 640x480 in 256 colors. These times VGA graphics was reserved to higher class computers, not typical office machines which could work with Hercules.
PCD 200 was sold in 1991 in Europe, mostly France but also in Poland. It was one of more expensive desktops and optionally came with VGA monitor and keyboard.


Manufacturer Philips

Origin Nederlands
Year of unit 1992
Year of introduction 1991
Class AT
CPU Intel 80286
Speed 12MHz
RAM 4MB
ROM PC BIOS
Graphics VGA (640x480x256col) on-board
Sound PC Speaker
System expansion bus 16-bit ISA (2 slots on riser card)
Floppy/removable media drives 1x 3.5" 1.44MB drive
 
 

Hard disk: Maxtor 7060AT
(C/H/S: 1024/7/17)

Peripherals in collection:
 - None

Other boards:

 

None
Non-standard expansions: Serial and parallel port controllers built-in mainboard
Operating system(s): MS-DOS 6.22

The history of my unit is not known. It came in professionally sanitized state, in which the hard disk has been erased and all partitions filled up with DOS 6.22 installation files. It looks like it survived CMOS battery leak which left traces near front panel switches as the battery was external. Not much documentation can be found about it.

On the right: Advertisement in French SVM magazine, 1991.

In June 1991, Polish "Computerworld" magazine in article "Domowy komputer" (Home computer) informed:

"PCD 204 to komputer typu IBM PC/AT firmy Philips przeznaczony do użytku domowego. Jego obudowa jest nieduża - 37 x 40 x 7,8 cm, ale sam komputer nie jest lekki -waży bowiem 7,4 kg. Jednostką centralną jest procesor 80286 taktowany zegarem 12,5 MHz. Pamięć operacyjna ma pojemność 1 MB. Dodatkowo może być zastosowany koprocesor, a pamięć rozszerza się do 4 MB. Pamięć masową stanowią stacja 3,5-calowych dyskietek 1,44 MB i szybki twardy dysk 40 MB o czasie dostępu 29 ms. W obudowie może być zamontowana druga stacja 3,5-calowych dyskietek. Można też używać specjalnej ze-, wnętrznej stacji 5,25 cala 1,2 MB o oznaczeniu PCM 005. Karta graficzna pozwala na pracę w kilku standardach: CGA, MGA, Hercules, EGA i VGA. W komplecie mieści się monitor monochromatyczny lub kolorowy VGA i mysz. W obudowie znajduje się miejsce na dwie karty rozszerzeń w standardzie AT. Bogate jest wyposażenie w różnorodne złącza: szeregowe -RS 232, równoległe - Centronics, myszy, klawiatury i monitora. Klawiatura z 101/102 klawiszami jest wygodna w użyciu. Niespotykanie bogate jest dodawane oprogramowanie. Oprócz systemu operacyjnego - MS-DOS 4.01 z DOS-Shell, otrzymujemy GW-Basic 3.23, MS-Works 2.0, PC Shell z PC Tools 6.0 i dwie gry - Indiana Jones and the last Crusade i World Class Leader Board Pro Golf Simulator.
Informacje: Autoryzowany przedstawiciel Philipsa, 04-308 Warszawa, ul. Lubieszowska 5, tel. 610-77-99, fox 610-59-32, tlx 82-52-83.
"

which means:

"PCD-204 is a PC-AT compatible computer from Philips for home use. Its case is not large - 37x40x7.8cm, but the unit is not light - its weight is 7.4kg. Ceontral processing unit is a 286 clocked at 12.5MHz, RAM is 1MB. Additionally it can be upgraded with a coprocessor, and memory can be expanded to 4MB. Mass storage is a 3.5-inch 1.44MB floppy disk drive. and fast, 40MB hard disk with 29ms access time. Inside, additional 3.5" drive can be installed or external 1.2MB 5.25" drive type PCM005 can be used. Graphics adapter can be used in few standards: CGA, MGA, Hercules, EGA and VGA. In a set, there is color or monochrome monitor nad mouse. Inside case, there is space for 2 AT expansion boards. The computer is equipped with a rich set of interfaces - RS-232 serial, Parallel Centronics, mouse, keyboard and display. Keyboard with 101/102 keys is comfortable. With MS-DOS 4.01 operating system, a large collection of software is added: GW-Basic 3.23, MS-Works 2.0, PC Shell with PC Tools 6.0 and two games: Indiana Jones and the last Crusade and World Class Leader Board Pro Golf Simulator. "


Contents: Starting, usage Configuration

Starting

The machine boots with Phoenix BIOS and if the setup has to be started a key has to be pressed. There is no built-in diagnostics or disk formatter. After memory test, the computer boots FDD and then if it fails, hard disk. Quite typical.

Up

 

 


Configuration

Most configuration is done in BIOS Setup. There are some undocumented jumpers in the mainboard.

 

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