View source for AX architecture

{{Short description|Japanese computing initiative to allow PCs to handle Japanese text}}
{{Expand Japanese|date=January 2017}}
[[File:Acer 1100 20x advert.jpg|thumb|Advert of an AX machine|alt=|254x254px]]
'''AX''' ('''A'''rchitecture e'''X'''tended) was a Japanese computing initiative starting in around 1986 to allow PCs to handle [[Double-byte character set|double-byte]] (DBCS) [[Japanese writing system|Japanese text]] via special hardware chips, whilst allowing compatibility with software written for foreign [[IBM PC]]s. 

== History ==
The idea was conceived by [[Kazuhiko Nishi]] before he resigned his position as vice president of [[Microsoft]].<ref name=":0" /> [[Microsoft Japan]] took over the project, and in July 1987 the Preparatory Committee of the AX Consortium started developing its specification. 

The AX Consortium officially started in October 1987, including [[ASCII Corporation]], [[Sony]], [[Hitachi]], [[Sharp Corporation|Sharp]], [[Oki Electric Industry|Oki]], [[Casio]], [[Canon Inc.|Canon]], [[Kyocera]], [[Sanyo]], [[Mitsubishi Electric]], etc., but notably excluding [[Toshiba]] and [[Fujitsu]] (who were hence the 'opposition').<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=100万人の謎を解く ザ・PCの系譜|publisher=コンピュータ・ニュース社|year=1988|isbn=4-8061-0316-0|editor-last=コンピュータ・ニュース社|pages=40–57|language=ja|chapter=「パソコン産業史」年表}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Methe |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5160396 |title=Methe, David & Miyabe, J. & Toyama, R. & Mitchell, Will. (1998). Overcoming a Standard Bearer: Challenges to NEC's Personal Computer in Japan |last2=Miyabe |last3=Toyama |last4=Mitchell |publisher=Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University |date=January 1998}}</ref> 

At that time, [[NEC]] [[PC-9801]] was the dominant PC architecture in the Japanese PC market because [[IBM PC/AT]] and its clone PCs could not display Japanese text.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schilke |first=Steffen |url=http://www.schilke.net/j10n/diplom.pdf |title=Japanization |year=1992 |pages=140}}</ref> However, NEC did not tolerate PC-9801 compatible machines and was fighting court battles with [[Epson]] which was the only PC-9801 compatible machine vendor. Therefore, other vendors desperately needed a standard specification for Japanese capable PCs.

Eventually two standards were developed: '''JEGA''' and '''AX-VGA'''.

Due to less available software and its higher cost compared to the PC-9801 series, AX failed and was not able to break into the market in Japan. The Nikkei Personal Computing journal reported in 1989 that only 18 out of 36,165 PCs used in 937 companies were AX machines, and 90% of companies had no plan to purchase the AX machine.<ref name="NikkeiPC_19890410">{{Cite journal |last1=松岡 |first1=資明 |last2=中川 |first2=貴雄 |last3=礒田 |first3=温之 |last4=西村 |first4=裕 |date=1989-04-10 |title=調査：パソコン・シェア 企業はPS/55、家庭はPC-9800 |journal=日経パソコン |language=Japanese |publisher=[[Nikkei Business Publications]] |pages=280–281 |issn=0287-9506}}</ref>

In 1990, IBM Japan unveiled [[DOS/V]] which enabled IBM PC/AT and its clones to display Japanese text without any additional hardware using a standard VGA card.<ref name=":1" /> Soon after, AX disappeared and the decline of NEC PC-9801 began.<ref name=":2" />

=== AX architecture machines ===
Several companies released AX computers:

* [[Oki Electric Industry]] if386AX30 / 50 series
* [[Casio Computer]] AX-8000D / 8000L
* [[Canon Inc.|Canon Axi]] DX-20 / 20P / 10 / 10P
* [[Kyocera]] AX386 model A
* [[Sanyo Electric]] MCB-17 /18  series 
* [[Sharp Corporation|Sharp]] AX286D / 286L / AX386 ( MZ-8000 )
* [[Sony]] Quarter L (PCX-300 series)
* [[Acer Inc.|Acer]] ACER1100 / 1200 / 1170
* [[NCR Corporation|NCR]] PC-AXL / PC-AX32
* [[Hitachi]] FLORA 3010 / 3020 series
* [[Mitsubishi Electric]]  MAXY (M3201 / M3202 / M3205)
* [[Yokogawa Electric|Yokogawa-Hewlett-Packard]] Vectra-AX series

== {{anchor|JEGA|AX-BIOS}}JEGA ==
{{Infobox GPU|name=JEGA|image=JEGA Video Adapter (Alps Electric).jpg|codename=|created={{Start date and age|1987}}|transistors=|entry=|midrange=|highend=|enthusiast=|openglversion=|d3dversion=|predecessor=[[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|EGA]]|successor=|architecture=P82C435 and V6367|designfirm=ASCII, Chips & Technologies}}To display [[Kanji]] characters with sufficient clarity, AX machines had {{Interlanguage link|JEGA|ja|Japanese Enhanced Graphics Adapter}} screens with a resolution of {{resx|640x480}} rather than the {{resx|640x350}} standard [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|EGA]] resolution prevalent elsewhere at the time.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Auckerman |date=February 1996 |title=Overcoming the Obstacles to Business Success in Japan |work=Computing Japan Magazine |url=https://www.japaninc.com/cpj/magazine/issues/1996/feb96/lin.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Insider's Computer Dictionary：JEGA とは？ - ＠IT |url=https://atmarkit.itmedia.co.jp/icd/root/70/5783770.html |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=atmarkit.itmedia.co.jp}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sandy |title=Video/Japanese Display Adapter For High Quality Japanese Fonts |url=http://sandy.blue.coocan.jp/Video/PS55_DA.html |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=PS/55, Japanese PS/2}}</ref> JEGA was developed jointly by [[ASCII Corporation|ASCII]] and [[Chips and Technologies|Chips & Technologies]], combining the P82C435 and V6367 video chips.<ref>"ASCII EXPRESS: IBM PC/AT compatible unified Japanese standard "AX" solidifies. It will be released by each company next spring”. ''ASCII'' '''1987.10''' .</ref> Users could typically switch between Japanese and English modes by typing <code>JP</code> and <code>US</code>, which would also invoke the AX-[[BIOS]] and an [[Input Method Editor|IME]] enabling the input of Japanese characters.

In addition to the modes provided by EGA, JEGA supports the following display modes as standard:

* '''{{resx|80x25}} character text display''', effective resolution {{resx|640x480}} pixels, 8 pages: overwrites modes 2h (graphic screen and overlaid display) and 3h of EGA;
* '''{{resx|640x480}} pixels graphics:''' 1 page or 1 page overlaid with text screen.

== {{anchor|AX-VGA|AX-VGA-S|AX-VGA-H}}AX-VGA ==
IBM released the [[Video Graphics Array|VGA]] standard soon after AX was introduced. Since the AX architecture was not compatible with the new standard, the AX consortium had to design a VGA compatible chipset . 

This was called '''{{Interlanguage link|AX-VGA|ja|Japanese Enhanced Graphics Adapter#AX-VGA}}''' and could be implemented in two ways: 

* '''AX-VGA/H''', a hardware implementation based on the AX-BIOS; 
* '''AX-VGA/S''', a software emulation. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Krusher |date=2018-09-04 |title=Graphics cards of the IBM era |url=https://blog.krusher.net/en/2018/09/graphics-cards-of-the-ibm-era/ |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=Nobody comes after the last |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Development of the AX-VGA chipset was delayed, and its first implementation came out in 1991.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=July 1991 |title=新製品ニュース HARD |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2221455/1/56 |journal=事務と経営 |language=ja |volume=43 |issue=542 |pages=90 |via=[[National Diet Library]] Digital Collections}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=CBR Staff Writer |date=June 3, 1991 |title=HITACHI DELAY IN AX SPEC PC DELIVERY |work=Tech Monitor |url=https://techmonitor.ai/technology/hitachi_delay_in_ax_spec_pc_delivery}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=FLORA 3020/3010 Series |url=https://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/personal/0074.html |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=Information Processing Society of Japan Computer Museum}}</ref> By that time, [[DOS/V]] was already available, allowing standard IBM PC compatibles to display Japanese text using a VGA card.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=West |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt6cf3c58z/qt6cf3c58z.pdf?t=lnomqr |title=Competing through Standards: DOS/V and Japan's PC Market |last2=Dedrick |publisher=Center for Research on Information Technologies and Organizations, University of California, Irvine |date=November 30, 1996}}</ref> The need for AX was gone and further developments were discontinued.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=West |first1=Joel |last2=Dedrick |first2=Jason |date=2000 |title=Innovation and Control in Standards Architectures: The Rise and Fall of Japan's PC-98 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23015882 |journal=Information Systems Research |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=197–216 |doi=10.1287/isre.11.2.197.11778 |jstor=23015882 |issn=1047-7047|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[DOS]]
*[[DOS/V]]
*[[Shift JIS]]
*[[PC Open Architecture Developers' Group]] (OADG)

== References ==
<references />

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |author-first1=Steven |author-last1=Myers |author-first2=Greg |author-last2=Smith |title=DOS/V: The Soft(ware) Solution to Hard(ware) Problems |date=March 1995 |journal=Computing Japan Magazine |url=http://www.japaninc.com/cpj/magazine/issues/1995/mar95/03dosv.html |access-date=2017-01-15 |url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115192029/http://www.japaninc.com/cpj/magazine/issues/1995/mar95/03dosv.html |archive-date=2017-01-15}}
* {{cite journal |author-first=John |author-last=Boyd |title=From Chaos to Competition - Japan's PC industry in transformation |date=April 1997 |journal=Computing Japan Magazine |url=http://www.japaninc.com/cpj/magazine/issues/1997/apr97/chaos.html |access-date=2017-01-16 |url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116023428/http://www.japaninc.com/cpj/magazine/issues/1997/apr97/chaos.html<!-- https://web.archive.org/web/20060926050143/http://www.cjmag.co.jp/magazine/issues/1997/apr97/chaos.html --> |archive-date=2017-01-16}}
*{{cite web |title=Die AX Computer (Japan) - 1988-1993 |language=German |author-first=Elmar |author-last=Dünßer |date=2015 |orig-year=2005 |url=http://www.duensser.com/pc_famax.htm |access-date=2017-01-16 |url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117133838/http://www.duensser.com/pc_famax.htm |archive-date=2017-01-17}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060809160329/http://www.ipsj.or.jp/katsudou/museum/computer/4200_e.html Mitsubishi Maxy] (information from a Japanese computer museum)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060715024509/http://www.ipsj.or.jp/katsudou/museum/computer/4220_e.html Oki if386AX] (information from a Japanese computer museum)

[[Category:Graphics hardware]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1986]]

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