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Amstrad jumped into the home computer market in June 1984, just in one year after the [[MSX]] Standard of June 1983 which was thought at the time to shake things up with its unique all-in-one concept for be the home marketend of the "cowboy" era of disparate and incompatible 8-bit computers.

Note: The Commodore PET and the Apple Macintosh were also It was just in time to shake things up with its unique all-in-one designs and both were launched before concept for the Amstrad CPC, but these computers were more targeted to education and businesshome market.

It even happened after While earlier computers like the [[MSX]] Standard of 1983 which was thought Commodore PET, Tandy TRS-80 Model III, Apple Lisa and Apple Macintosh had pioneered the all-in-one design, they were primarily aimed at the time to be the end of the "cowboy" era of disparate businesses and incompatible 8bit computerseducation.

One notable exception was the sound chip: while the C64 employed the splendid custom [[SID ]] chip, Amstrad opted for a generic sound chip - [[AY|AY-3-8912]] - with unremarkable features. It is no surprise though as there was not much choice in off-the-shelf sound chips in early 1984. The reason is that Yamaha had patented its hardware implementation of frequency modulation synthesis (FM) in the 1970s, allowing it to nearly monopolize the market for this technology until the mid-1990s [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation_synthesis Source].

Despite initial denials, the machine was launched in Europe shortly afterwards, replacing the 664 for the same price - a situation which understandably irritated some of those who had recently purchased 664s. As well as the [[CP/M ]] 2.2 and [[DR Logo]] that had shipped with the DDI-1 and the CPC664, the 6128 came bundled with CP/M Plus (with the GSX graphics extension) making it an appealing all-round computer at a low price. Though the 128KB of memory could not be accessed all at once from BASIC (due to limitations of the [[Z80]]), the upper 64KB could be used readily from machine code courtesy of an upgraded [[Gate Array]]. A bundled program, [[Bankman]], provided some access from BASIC.

Described as a solution of 'too little, too late', this was Amstrad's second effort to prolong the life of its 8-bit computer series in the face of fierce competition from new 16-bit machines (notably, the [[Atari ST]] and the Commodore [[Amiga]]). The Plus series were mostly quite (but not quite 100%) compatible with the original CPC computers. The compatibility issues came mostly from:* The new Amstrad ROMs, and incorporated breaking ROM access to the floppy drive (can be easily fixed by using a list of [[ASICPlus System Cartridge|new featuresDowngrade System cartridge]])* The emulated [[8255|PPI]] chip, like a cartridge port for instant program loading, DMA for making the keyboard unresponsive* The emulated [[AYCRTC]] soundchip, enhanced hardware scrollingbreaking CPC demos* Unlike the original model, programmable interrupts, 16 hardware zoomable sprites (not vectorized) with an independent palette of 15 colours, and the 464 Plus lacks a choice of 4096 colours all in a new, sleek case which mimicked tape counter for tracking cassette positions. It also omits the keyboard-computer design distinctive loading sounds that was ''en vogue'' in were once audible through the 16-bit market (ST, Amiga etc)speaker during tape operations on the original CPC 464.

While the Amstrad The Plus computers were one series incorporated a list of the most advanced 8-bit computers ever built [[ASIC|new features]], like a cartridge port for instant program loading, DMA for the mass market[[AY]] soundchip, they died enhanced hardware scrolling, programmable interrupts, 16 hardware zoomable sprites (not vectorized) with an early death as independent palette of 15 colours, and a choice of 4096 colours all in a new, sleek case which mimicked the 16keyboard-bit era computer design that was already ''en vogue'' in full swingthe 16-bit market (ST, Amiga etc).

Described as a solution of 'too little, too late', this was Amstrad's effort to prolong the life of its 8-bit computer series in the face of fierce competition from new 16-bit machines (notably, the [[Atari ST]] and the Commodore [[Amiga]]). While the Amstrad Plus computers were one of the most advanced 8-bit computers ever built for the mass market, they died an early death as the 16-bit era was in full swing. And 32-bit computers were already appearing. The year before, Amstrad launched its first 32-bit PC, the [[Amstrad PC|PC2386]]. Also, the [[Apple II|Apple IIGS]] and the [[MSX|MSX Turbo-R]] proved that 8-bit machines could be upgraded to 16-bit. It would have been possible with the CPC if Amstrad had decided to do so.