| Also known as | ACT Apricot |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Apricot Computers |
| Type | Personal computer |
| Release date | Late 1983 |
| Operating system | Came with standard MS-DOS 2.11 and CP/M-86. |
| CPU | 4.77 MHz @ Intel 8086 CPU Socket for optional Intel 8087 co-processor. |
| Memory | RAM 256 kB (Max 768 kB) |
| Storage | 2 × 3.5" floppy drives with 315 kB or 720 kB capacity |
| Display | CRT green-screen 9" |
| Graphics | Hitachi 46505: Text mode 80 × 25 or graphics 800 × 400 pixels |
| Input | Keyboard with an integrated LCD display |
The Apricot PC (originally called the ACT Apricot) is a personal computer produced by Apricot Computers, then still known as Applied Computer Techniques or ACT. Released in late 1983, it was ACT's first independently developed microcomputer, following on from the company's role of marketing and selling the ACT Sirius 1,[1] and was described as "the first 16-bit system to be Sirius-compatible, rather than IBM-compatible", indicating the influence that the Sirius 1 had in the United Kingdom at the time.[2]
It achieved success in the United Kingdom, with reviewers noting the system's high resolution 800 × 400 display (for its time) and its trackball cable (later models used IR).
It used an Intel 8086 processor running at 4.77 MHz. A 8087 math co-processor was optional. The amount of memory was 256 kB, expandable to 768 kB. It came with a CRT green-screen 9"[3] with text mode 80 × 25 or graphics 800 × 400 pixels and was equipped with two floppy discs and a keyboard with an integrated LCD display.
The Apricot Xi was a similar computer released in 1984,[3] with a hard drive instead of a second floppy-drive.
Due to an IBM PC incompatible BIOS, trying to run a software package like dBase III would result in a system crash.[3]
The system was delivered with SuperCalc, and several system utilities, asynchronous communication,[3] an emulator for IBM PC, Microsoft Basic-86, Basic Personal and ACT Manager (a GUI for MS-DOS). Optionally available were Microsoft Word, Multiplan, WordStar, dBase II, C-Pascal, UCSD Pascal, C, Fortran, COBOL and Basic Compiler 5.35.
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.
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.