---
title: Xerox 6085
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1985'
cpus:
- Xerox Mesa
params:
  name: '6085'
  image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_6085_system_s1.jpg
  company: /companies/xerox
  company_name: Xerox
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: '6085'
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Xerox
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1985'
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: '1989'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: 95 key Typewriter style with 20 funtion keys and numeric keypad
  - label: CPU
    value: Xerox Mesa
  - label: SPEED
    value: 8 MHz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: Unknown
  - label: RAM
    value: 1.1 MB up to 3.7 MB
  - label: VRAM
    value: Unknown
  - label: ROM
    value: Unknown
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: Bit-map characters
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 880 x 697 dots
  - label: COLORS
    value: Monochrome
  - label: SOUND
    value: Yes, see below
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: Unknown
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: 2 serial ports
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: 5.25 floppy drive, 10 to 80 MB HDD
  - label: OS
    value: Xerox ViewPoint
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Unknown
  - label: PRICE
    value: From $4995
  tabs:
  - adverts
  forum_thread: 1025
  adverts:
  - title: XEROX RANGE, AUGUST 1985
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/pubs/xerox_6085_pub_s1.jpg
  oc_id: 1052
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608082628/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1052
    date: '2023-06-08'
---

The Xerox 6085 was the successor of the revolutionary Xerox **Star**, first commercial computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI) with the familiar desktop, icons and a mouse.

The 6085 series was offered in models for network, remote (linked by Ethernet) and stand alone operation. The main unit was founded upon Xerox's Mesa 8 MHz processor which had 256 auxiliary registers and executed 48-bit-wide instructions. It also used an 80186 as an auxiliary processor.

The basic system came with 1.1 MB of memory, expandable up to 3.7 MB, a 10 to 80 MB hard disk drive, two serial ports and a 15-inch high-resolution monochrome display. An optional card allowed the 6085 to run MS-DOS software.

The operating system and GUI interface was called **ViewPoint**. It also came from the Star. It was written in a language developed at Xerox PARC in the 1970's and also called **Mesa**. This strongly-typed and structured high-level language, would have a large influence on future well known languages like Pascal or C.

Two improved versions were launched afterwards, the **6085-II** with an almost twice as fast processor, and the **XPIW** (Xerox Publishing Illustrator's Workstation), basically a 6085 workstation with a scanner.\
Sadly, like the Alto, the 6085 didn't meet a large success in spite of numerous vanguard concepts, mainly because the Xerox marketing policy was, at the time, above all directed towards copiers rather than computers.

---

**David Lowy** was part of the field technical and marketing support team:\
There were four peripherals available for the 6085. A Tape Drive for backup (using a cartridge). A Xerox 4045 Laser Printer/Copier (When sold together, it was called a Documenter). A Xerox 7650 flatbed scanner. And lastly a PC Option card that added a 386 class processor along with MS DOS to enable running MS-DOS applications.

About the sound capabilities, **Edward T. Weeden** specifies:\
I was part of the original team working on the release of the Xerox 6085 PCS (Professional Computer System). I was scanning your description of it and noted that you do not know if it was sound-capable. It was. As a matter of fact, I programmed many tunes and sounds for it in the Xerox proprietary programming language called CUSP. This thing would play sound in sequence. For example, if you were doing something which took up buffer/time, you could click on the bell icon on your desktop and the bell sound (whatever tune you had in the icon properties) would sound in sequence, after the other stuff was done!...