Ampere WS-1
A cool Japanese clamtop
The Company
When I first started researching this company, I couldn’t find much information about it. Nothing on Opencorporates. Wikipedia has this company categorized as defunct. However, I finally found their website. Apparently, the business is still in operation selling UPSes and education tools. (Funnily, the English side of their site is very bare. They have a lot more information on their Japanese site.)
Here is some information from their site:
Date of Establishment: October 7, 1971
Capital: 222 million Yen
Number of Employees: 49
Business lines: Development, production and sale of computer application equipment (hardware/software) and peripherals.
The Computer
Ampere released the WS-1 in November 1985. Developed under the name BIG.APL, the WS-1 was powered by HD68000, a Motorola 68000 license built by Hitachi. The case was designed by automotive designer Kumeo Tamura, who was responsible for the Datsun 240Z.
The WS-1 had an 8 MHz CPU and 64 KB of RAM (expandable to 512 KB). It also supported printers, floppy disk drives, and hard disks. Its operating system (Big.DOS) and most of its software were created in the US. However, the WS-1 was not imported into the US because it did not comply with FCC emissions regulations. It was sold in the UK and Australia, as you can see from other ads included in this post.
Besides the eye-catching design, the WS-1 also had a few other features that made it stand out from the crowd:
Used the APL programming language instead of industry-standard BASIC
A microcassette to store data
Used VMEbus, an open standard based on the 6800
While it was never imported to the US, many US publications covered it. The APL Interpreter had a pretty comprehensive article about the system in their Spring 1984 issue:
AMPERE, Inc. of Japan unveiled here on June 11 its new six-pound, battery-operated portable computer at APL'84, the annual international gathering of APL professionals. AMPERE's personal computer, tentatively called BIG.APL, will be available for sale in the U.S. late this year for $1495. Many APL software developers plan to introduce application software for BIG.APL at the same time.
Mr. Kusanagi, President of AMPERE, Inc. predicted enthusiastically that BIG.APL will outperform other lap-size computers being introduced this year. He proclaimed that "the APL language and new CMOS technology will create a revolutionary breakthrough in end-user productivity. BIG.APL running on battery power can serve as a notebook computer for the busy executive, or it can become a full scale production system for the business user."
Robin Mattern, Marketing Manager for The Computer Company's APL Software Products, who coordinated the software development for BIG.APL, agreed with Mr. Kusanagi, adding that he expected the largest market for BIG.APL to be traveling professionals: "BIG.APL provides an ideal means for scheduling appointments, storing and recalling addresses, telephone numbers, and flight connections, writing and send ing letters, and recording and tracking expenses. Mr. Mattern also noted that the educational market promises to be a big one due to APL's excellence as an interactive teaching tool.
Development of this extraordinary portable has brought together the diverse skills of Japanese and U.S. computer experts: A number of distinguished Japanese firms are responsible for the financing, production, and marketing of BIG.APL. The unit's sleek physical appearance is the result of the efforts of Mr. Tamura, who also designed the Datsun 280Z automobile. Phil Van Cleave implemented both a new Operating system called BIG.DOS and the APL.63000 Interpreter, which is virtually identical to the APL.68000 Interpreter sold by The Computer Company. Tom Yannes of LeHigh Electronics designed the BIG.SCREEN full-screen editor discussed in this issue. All Rose, co-author of the highly respected APL: An Interactive Approach is writing a new book to accompany the BIG.APL system. And finally, a Japanese software developer is working on a graphics package for BIG.APL.
Success in the non-APL market will depend on the application software for non-APLers, developed with the aid of BIG.APL programming tools. Phil Van Cleave demonstrated how the interaction between storage and input/output devices, particularly the keyboard and screen, is extremely straight forward, greatly facilitating development. Operating system utilities can be used directly from APL; in fact, as Mr. Van Cleave commented, "developers will never see the operating system, but rather can build and run applications by knowing only one computer language, the best available, APL."
The same issue contained another article on the WS-1 entitled “BIG.APL: The Evolution Continues” with more info about the system:
BIG.APL is s-o-m-e snazzy computer. It packs more features into a 3" x 11" x 12" box than any other computer to date.
BIG.APL is fast and cost-effective. It uses the Motorola MC-68000 CPU running at 8 MHZ, which allows it to outperform micros priced significantly above BIG.APL's price of $1495.
BIG.APL is truly portable. It's small, it's light, and its ten nickel cadmium batteries run the system for eight hours before recharging is necessary. The batteries maintain working memory for 20 days when the system is not used.
BIG.APL is powerful. It runs an enhanced version of the interactive APL language including all the commands to operate the system. A fourth generation language, APL was developed originally by IBM in the 1960s and has been expanded and improved for business use since that time.
BIG.APL can run two processes concurrently so that one application can print reports, answer the phone, send mail, or receive stock quotations without disturbing the other application. Windows can be opened or closed at will to edit or process data or to monitor the progress of a background application. Because all work is done in a single operating environment, all data managed by any application can be used by any other.
BIG.APL's standard hardware configuration includes 128KB of read-only memory (ROM), which stores the system software, and 64KB of random-access memory (RAM) that is expandable to 256KB. Disk file space can be set up in permanent read-only memory, battery backed-up working memory, floppy disks, Winchester hard disks, microcassette tape, or the credit card size cartridges that contain RAM or ROM packs.
BIG.APL features a 16 line by 80 character liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and a standard typewriter keyboard. The LCD screen can display four alternate sets of characters: extended APL (the default character set) which includes both APL and ASCII (typewriter) characters, APL only, ASCII only, and Kana (for the Japanese).
BIG.APL has eight function keys located below the screen which can be designated for application-appropriate tasks such as requesting help, ending a process, finding stored information, etc. Other keys, on the keyboard, are permanently labeled for Operations such as replacing, inserting, and deleting characters, moving the cursor position, and so on.
BIG.APL produces graphic images using a powerful set of commands for creating and editing business charts. Animated screen images can be generated by combining the bit-mapped graphics of the LCD screen and APL's bit-handling capabilities. For those users who want a paper copy of information on the screen, AMPERE offers a graphics printer which produces an exact screen image.
BIG.APL communicates. Using the built-in speaker, microphone, telephone modem, and the microcassette tape, voice messages can be integrated into users’ applications. Voice messages can be replaced at the same time as associated data is displayed from the same tape. BIG.APL connects to a standard telephone for placing calls directly or with the auto-dial modem and can be used to receive phone messages or data from another system (acting as a computer terminal). The modem uses one of the two RS232 ports that alternately can be used to connect a second user to BIG.APL.
AND, as if this weren't enough, AMPERE is exploring the possibility of linking the BIG.APL into an ETHERNET network of computer and telephone workstations.
(The WS-1 was briefly mentioned in the above episode of The Computer Chronicles. You can find the clip about 13 minutes in.)
Creative Computing offered a more balanced look at the WS-1 in their March 1985 issue:
I got a call from friend and fellow Model 100er Bob Covington the other day, and first heard about the Ampere portable. The more he told me, the lower my jaw dropped, and as result I decided to mount my own investigation of this magic machine. My thanks to you, Bob, for putting me onto it.
One look at it will intrigue you; it looks as if it had been carved out of the cross section of a small Fiberglas airfoil (see photos). The case was designed by Kumeo Tamura, who among other distinguished credits, designed the original Datsun 280Z coupe.
The flip-top reveals a full-size 80 x 25 character LCD, which like the Datavue 25, and unlike the Data General/One, is extremely easy to read, even in less than optimal lighting conditions. It sports 64K RAM expandable internally to 256K, a 70-key full-stroke keyboard, built-in parallel and serial ports, 300 baud autodial modem, clock/calendar, and three cartridge slots. An accessory bus slot allows the addition of floppy disk, hard disk, and memory expansion to 512K. In addition, a built-in 300K microcassette unit can be used to store data or to record and playback audio. It includes a built-in microphone and speaker, and can be used as a telephone answering machine, as well as a telephone call recorder.
But the real news is the fact that inside its 1 28K of system ROM is a language that can make real use of the 8 MHz 32-bit 68000 CPU that forms the Ampere's advanced brain — APL. APL is a high level programming language originally designed for IBM mainframes back in the late 1960's. In his book Computer Lib, Creative Computing contributing editor Ted Nelson said the following of the APL language:
"Some people call it a 'scientific' language. Some people call it a 'mathematical' language. Some people are most struck by its use for interactive systems, so to them it's an 'interactive' language. But most of us just think of it as 'the language with all the funny symbols' . . . Enthusiasts see it as a language of inconceivable power, with extraodinary uses. Cynics remark that it has all kinds of extraordinary powers for inconceivable uses — that is, a weird elegance, much of which has no use at all, and some of which gets in the way.
"This is probably wrong. APL is a terrific and beautiful triumph of the mind, and a very useful programming language. It is not for everybody, but neither is chess. It is for bright children, mathematicians, and companies that want to build interactive systems . . . APL is a language of arrays, with a fascinating notation . . . Let's just say the language works on things modified successively by operators. Their order and result is based upon those fiendish chicken scratches, Iverson notation."
APL has some rather bizarre symbols, many of which are missing in common ASCII notation, and they largely replace the English-like command sets we have all grown to know and love in Basic, Pascal, and Logo. Nelson calls APL "stark and clever," but goes on to note that the language is undeniably dense, and hard to debug. In Iverson notation the same symbol can mean two different things, dependent upon its context.
The Ampere runs Big. APL, a subset of APL 68000, which itself is an adaption of IBM APL.SV, under an operating system dubbed Big. DOS. This implementation has been enhanced to include a component file system, alpha report formatting, text handling, and full-screen editing capabilities. It supports foreground and background multi-tasking and windowing.
An integrated software package will be packed into ROM as a standard feature of the Ampere. It will include a word processor, spreadsheet, telecommunications package, and database program. The three cartridge slots can be used to stow up to 1 Meg of ROM or 64K of CMOS RAM each. Ampere states that a $500 I Meg 3.5" microfloppy drive will be offered to complement the Ampere portable.
When the unit was first announced, its startling price of $ 1500 was based on a 16-line display. With the jump to a full-screen display, the retail price will probably move to the vicinity of $2000. This still seems extremely reasonable for a 6.5 lb. machine measuring 12" x 12" x 3" and packing the punch of a 68000-based APL system. We hope to provide a full review of this remarkable machine as soon as it becomes available to us.
Byte had a small blurb announcing the WS-1 in the February 1986 issue: “Ampere Corporation here in Tokyo makes the beautiful and very powerful WS-1 lap-size portable computer; it uses the 68000 microprocessor. Ampere's integrated software package, written entirely in APL, is now in the beta-test stage and looks like it's very easy to learn and use. I hope to report on it further in a later column. Meanwhile, Ampere has informed me that it will soon announce an extremely compact external 3 l/2-inch, 1S-megabyte hard-disk drive as a WS-1 accessory; Kusanagi-san, the president of Ampere, told me that you'll be able to daisy-chain up to four of the drives connected to a WS-1.”
I found a couple of other mentions of the WS-1, but they repeat information already covered. If you want to investigate, check out the list below:
Have you ever used any Ampere products? Do you know anything about its history? Tell us about it in the comments below.
What computer ads would you like to see in the future? Please comment below. If you enjoyed it, please share it with your friends and relatives. Thank you.
