Apricot PC

The system was delivered with SuperCalc, and several system utilities, asynchronous communication, == IBM PC compatibility ==

The manufacturer did not completely clone the IBM BIOS, so although it ran MS-DOS and CP/M-86, it was not IBM PC compatible as the underlying system BIOS and hardware was very different. An Intel 8089 I/O controller was used, instead of the Intel 8237 DMA chip used in IBM computers; the ROM was only a simple boot loader rather than a full BIOS; and there was no 640k barrier. The floppy disk format was "not quite compatible"; attempting to read an ordinary PC FAT floppy in an Apricot, or vice versa, would result in a scrambled directory listing with some files missing. Due to this incompatibility, software (such as dBase III) designed for an IBM PC could cause the system to crash. Apricot later offered the possibility of converting the computer into an IBM compatible PC by replacing the motherboard with one equipped with an Intel 80286 processor. ==Technical data==

• Processor: Intel 8086 . Socket for optional Intel 8087 co-processor. • BIOS: 2 × EPROM containing the BIOS • Memory: RAM expandable to on board. • Storage: 2 × 3.5" floppy drives with or capacity • DMA chip: Intel 8089 • Graphics: Comes with a green phosphor screen 9" that weights . Can display one of these modes: • Text 80 × 25 (Characters of 10 × 16 pixels) • Text 132 × 50 (Characters of 6 × 8 pixels) • Graphics at 800 × 400 (Hitachi 46505 CRT controller chip - equivalent to a Motorola 6845, also used on the Victor 9000 computer) • Mechanical Keyboard 101-key QWERTY, 8 function keys and 6 keys standard dynamic membrane with an LED to the left of each one to indicate they are active. An LCD with 40 × 2 characters is included, which can display the key assignment. Weighs and can be attached to the frame underneath for easy transport. • Housing: plastic cream weighing about 6.4 kg The front half of the top shows a depression to bring the monitor. In the front two 3.5" floppy drives that can be protected with a shutter for transport. Under these, a carrying handle. At the rear two proprietary Apricot connector slots for expansion, parallel printer port of Centronics micro ribbon 36 pin connector type, serial port DB-25 connector, monitor connector and power supply with a switch. • Support for two internal 3,5" Sony floppy disk drives • Input / Output: • External monitor connector. • Parallel printer port, Centronics micro ribbon 36-pin connector • RS-232 serial port • Two expansion connectors or internal Apricot • Operating system came with standard MS-DOS 2.11 and CP/M-86. == References ==