Date of introduction: 1984
Date of withdrawal: 1990
Also known as:
PC23P-Ax/LH — where x gave the monitor color A (B/W), J(Grn), S(Amb).
Price: $2,695 – $2885

Technology: Same as the DECmate II.

Reason for introduction: Again, DEC discovered that the market for large systems was dominated by other products, and that the PDP-8 based products were rarely expanded to their full potential. Thus, there was no point in paying the price for expandability.

Compatability: Same as the DECmate II, except that the printer port is fixed at 4800 baud.

Standard Configuration: The DECmate III was sold with 32K of program memory, plus a second full bank for dedicated control panel functions, an integral RX50 dual 5 1/4 inch diskette drive with an 8051 controller chip, a printer port, a 100Hz real-time-clock, a data communications port, and interfaces for the VR-201 monitor and keyboard.

Expandability: A revised version of the Z80 based coprocessor for the DECmate II was available for $430 (PC23X-AB/LH), and a graphics board largely compatable with the later DECmate II graphics board could be added for $630 (PC23X-CA/LH), allowing the standard monochrome monitor to be replaced with a VR-241 color monitor. Dual monitor configurations were not supported. An obscure variant of the DEC scholar modem was also supported for $630 (PC23X-DA/LH).

Survival: As with the DECmate I.

(Source: PDP8 FAQ)