Kaypro 10

Kaypro 10's Predecessor (Kaypro 5)

The Kaypro 5 never went into production. It appears that by the time they were ready for production the cost of a 10MB hard drive was not much more than a 5MB hard drive so they went straight to the K10.

I theorize that the model number 81-005 may have been that the machine was planned to be the Kaypro 5.

Kaycomp Computers has unveiled a portable Z80-CP/M-based machine with a 9-in. display that incorporates a 5-1/4-in. Winchester disk drive.

The Kaypro 5 uses a 5-Mbyte Winchester from either Tandon Magnetics Corp. or Seagate Technology.

Priced at $4,485, the Kaypro 5 is a hard disk version of the Kaypro II (formerly known as the Kaycomp II), a $1,795 portable microcomputer with double-density minifloppy disk drives. The company is currently producing 4,000 Kaypro IIs per month, Kay said.

Both units have 64K of RAM, run CP/M and include, in their purchase prices, SBasic from Topaz Programming, Profit Plan from Chang Laboratories and the Select word processing package from Select Systems.
(Newspaper clipping, no citation)

Kaypro 10

Manual

May 1983 version (with updates):

• File:K10 users guide May 1983.pdf
• File:K10 users manual update Aug 1983.pdf
• File:K10 users guide update Oct 1983.pdf
• File:K10 users guide may 83 add MUFBAR.pdf
• File:K10 users guide addbackup.pdf

Jan 1984 version: File:Kaypro 10 Manual.pdf

K10 Pre-Release

Kaypro, the division of Non-Linear Systems that makes portable desktop computers, will introduce a 10-Mbyte hard disk at Comdex, EE Times has learned.

Marketing vice president David Kay said the 5-1/4-in. disk will be bundled in a new package, dubbed the Kaypro 10. which will sell for $2795.

Kay predicted that the 10-Mbyte Winchester will allow major graphics enhancements over the current Kaypro II, which is bundled with eight double density floppies at a price of $1795.

The extra memory in the hard disk will accommodate graphics "somewhere between business and high-resolution quality, will allow for new enhancements like underlining, highlighting and reverse video, and will drive displays at 4 MHz," he said.
(Electrical Enginnering Times, November 22, 1982)

The first Winchester-based portable computer priced at less than $3,000 was introduced at Comdex by the Kaypro Division of Non-Linear Systems Inc.

Dubbed the Kaypro 10, the portable contains a 10-Mbyte hard drive and runs CP/M. ... The system language is S-Basic and a Profitplan spreadsheet program is included. Software applicatins included with the Kaypro 10 are the Perfect Writer, Perfect Speller, Perfect Filler, and Perfect Calc. ...

Video features include graphics model with 160 by 100 pixels for graphs and games, inverse, blinking, underlining, and reduced intensity. ...

Provisions are made for a light pen connection. ...

Priced at $2,795, the Kaypro 10 will be available to dealers next year.
(Clipping)

Note that IBM announced the PC XT which included a Hard Drive on March 8, 1983. Compaq would wait for a 3.5 inch hard drive to be available so the Compaq Plus wasn't revealed until October 25, 1983.

K10 Production Issues

"The Kaypro 10 has been shipped in limited quantities since April (1983) and bulk shipments are soon to come."
(CommuniKay, June 1983)

As of this writing (late March), 25,000 people have bought KAYPRO IIs, and NLS president Andy Kay expects to sell another 50,000 (including sales of the next computer, the KAYPRO 10) by the end of August. ...

Their KAYPRO 10 was recently unveiled and 8,000 orders are in before the first one comes off the production line. Kay expects to be turning out 10,000 KAYPRO 10s a month to match production of the Ils. "Interest is so high it looks like we'll sell more 10s than IIs," said Kay. ... The 10 is faster than the II and has graphics capability. It comes in the same package and retails for $2,795.
(San Diego Magazine, May 1983)

Production line snarls have cut planned output of the new Kaypro 10 microcomputer by as much as 75 percent, but the company has no plans or need to retrofit products already sold, as has been rumored, said Vice President David Kay yesterday.

By this time, Solana Beach-based Kaypro expected to be producing 500 Kaypro 10 machines a day, Kay admitted yesterday, "but production is now 90 to 150 a day." The company started shipping the product in August.

Retailers are complaining of problems. "Customers have been losing data because of problems with the hard disk drive," said James Keais, technician in La Mesa's On-Line Computer Center. About 40 percent of the center's customers have had some problems with the Kaypro 10, he said. and as a result, the store warns potential customers of the problem. And it makes good on products sold: "One machine has been in here for two weeks, waiting for new hard disks," he said.

The Kaypro 10 is the first portable microcomputer using a hard disk, rather than a floppy disk - and unlike with floppies, it is not just a matter of the user putting in a new disk, explained John Rigoli, owner of the On-Line store. But Kaypro has said nothing about a retrofit operation, he said.

Kay said that overall, there has been nothing like a 40 percent failure rate: "You always get complaints about a new product," he said. But conceivably, one or a handful of retailers might get a high percentage of flawed products, he said There has been talk in the industry that Kaypro has had to suspend production of the Kaypro 10, and that a retrofit is planned. "If we have stopped production, it's only been for half a day or so," said Kay, who added that if a major problem developed, the company would retrofit existing products, but he is aware of no such problems.

"In all electronics, there is a debugging process," he said. Каурго had a problem before with disk drives for floppies.

This problem, however, has impacted the company's financial results, he conceded. Last week, Kaypro reported that 1983 sales were $75.1 million - up impressively from 1982's $5.5 million, but less than the $100 million which had been bandied about last summer, as Kaypro was preparing for its initial stock offering. Most of that $25 million sales difference resulted from the problems with getting the Kaypro 10 production up to expectations, Kay said.

"It's a vendor problem, not a design problem," Kay said. Some of the microchips aren't up to specifications, he explained. "In a nutshell, we're not getting enough hard disks to meet our demand. IBM has the same problem" with its hard disk microcomputer, he said.

The controller board for the Kaypro 10 has been a problem, too - one related to the chips received from vendors.

"Also, there is a lot of pilot error (errors by users of the system)," he said. "It's been a series of random problems - deviations in the batches of chips, tolerances that cause problems, problems with hard disks. We're solving them. We don't foresee a universal retrofit situation," he said.

Demand is still strong. "The problem is lack of parts, not lack of sales." said Kay. As soon as the production problems are solved, Kaypro 10 sales will be back up to expectations, he said.
(Donald C. Bauder, Financial Editor, Newspaper Clipping, Likely from the San Diego Union)

"The company cited an inability to receive enough disk drives for the present $50 million inventory level. Kay said most of the problems stemmed from a shortage of Winchester drives for the Kaypro 10, but he noted that those problems have been solved with new sources. Kaypro had been buying hard disk drives exclusively from Tandon Corp. and now is additionally sourcing Winchesters from Seagate Technology and Microscience International Corp."
(Computer System News, February 27, 1984)

K10 in production

"There are no changes here. The Kaypro 10 still has a 10-megabyte Winchester hard disk, one 392K floppy drive, an internal 300-baud modem, and a real-time clock.

The software package for the Kaypro 10 is the same as for the Robie, plus software for backing up your hard disk onto floppy disks."
(Profiles V3 N6)

K10 marketing

This flier is from the personal collection of David Kay. It does not have dates on it but based on the product release dates and that it features the Kaypro 10 I believe it is likely for the 1983 National Computer Conference. Which was held May 16-19 in Anaheim, California. That year the Anaheim Convention Center was full of displays and the overflow was in the Disneyland Hotel. National Computer Convention 1983

K10 Ends Production

"The Kaypro Corporation sends news of the passing of a couple of old friends, the Kaypro 1 and the Kaypro 10. The decision to send old No. 1 to the glue factory will sadden many CP/M followers who fondly remember 'Darth Vader's lunch bucket.'" (New York Times, February 11, 1986)

Prototype Variation on the K10

"Unfortunately the climate-hardened Kaypros referred to in that article were especially manufactured for the purpose. They were Kaypro 10s without any ventilation slots in the chassis, no floppy drives, and special sealing gaskets around the communications ports and CRTs.

Without floppy drives the only way to introduce new programs and download data is through the serial ports. Only a small number of these computers were made as an experiment by Kaypro. They are not available on special order."
(Profiles V3 N8)

Dates

Note that this disk refers to the K10 and has a date of Oct 20, 1983. Part number: 81-225-48

It FCC ID was issued July 7, 1985.