Matra Alice

The Matra Alice

The Matra & Hachette Ordinateur Alice was 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 unique, bright red casing. Functionally, it is equivalent to the MC-10, with a Péritel (SCART) connector replacing the RF modulator for video output.

Unlike its progenitor, the Alice became a popular computer in its home country, aided by its presence in schools as part of the country's Informatique pour tous ("Information technology for everyone") programme.

The colour-coordinated data recorder for the Alice

Matra later released two successor models:

• The Matra Alice 32, which shared the case style of the original, but was a different computer inside, due to using the EF9345 video chip in place of the MC-10's 6847. 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, 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.

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.

External links

• 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