website/content/museum/axel-ax-25.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
AXEL AX-25	Computers	Professional Computer	France	1984	Intel 8088	name image company company_name specs forum_thread oc_id source AX-25 /media/museum/photos/axel_ax25_1.jpg /companies/axel AXEL label value NAME AX-25 label value MANUFACTURER Axel label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN France label value YEAR 1984 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE M Basic (on disk) label value KEYBOARD AZERTY full-stroke keyboard with separated numeric keypad\ 8 programmable function keys on the monitor ! label value CPU Intel 8088 label value SPEED 8 Mhz label value RAM 128 KB (up to 1 MB) label value ROM Unknown label value TEXT MODES 24 x 80 label value GRAPHIC MODES 640 x 288 (optional graphic card) label value COLORS No (12'' monochrome monitor) label value SIZE / WEIGHT 42 x 51 38 cm label value I/O PORTS Parallel/Centronics, RS232c (optional), 5 x 8-bit ISA extension slots label value BUILT IN MEDIA AX-25A : 2 x 5''1/4 disk-drives (2,7Mb each)\ AX-25B : 1 x 5''1/4 disk-drive and 1 hard-drive (10Mb) label value OS MS DOS (CP/M 86 in option) label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in PSU / 70w label value PERIPHERALS Printers, graphic card label value PRICE AX-25A : 7012 (France, 1984)\ AX-25B : 8080 (France, 1984) 97 82 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20221203223559/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=82 2022-12-03

This french computer has some IBM PC compatibility. It can read PC disks with a special software and has ISA expansion slots. But it's not a real PC compatible machine.
It is more powerful than its little brother, the AX-20. But historicaly, the AX-25 was conceived before the AX-20, though it was marketed later.

Two models were available : the AX-25A with two 5"1/4 disk drives and the AX-25B with one 5"1/4 disk drive and a hard disk (10 MB).

The disk capacity is quite impressive for its time: 2,7Mb. The drive uses special 192 TPI disks and was conceived by Drivetec (USA). Technically, there a kind of mix between hard-disks and classic floppy drives.

The AX-25 is also quite fast with its clock-rate at 8 Mhz.

The AX-25 is sold with a text editor built-in: AED. It is a pictogram driven software and you could even use a mouse with it, just like with the brand new Macintosh (1984). If you hadn't a mouse, you could use the 8 function keys which were directly mounted on the monitor, at the bottom of the screen !

MicroSoft Basic, MicroSoft Word, Multiplan and Micropro software (including Wordstar) were available for this machine. The main operating system was MS-DOS but CP/M 86 was also possible as an option. M Basic was sold with the system, but Business Basic, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol and C were also available.