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---
title: Sirius Computer Victor 9000 / Sirius 1
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1982'
cpus:
- Intel 8086
params:
name: Victor 9000 / Sirius 1
image: /media/museum/photos/sirius_victor-s1_1.jpg
company: /companies/sirius-computer
company_name: Sirius Computer
specs:
- label: NAME
value: Victor 9000 / Sirius 1
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Sirius Computer
- label: TYPE
value: Professional Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: '1982'
- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
value: None
- label: KEYBOARD
value: Full-stroke keyboard with function keys, editing keypad and separated numeric keypad. 94 keys
- label: CPU
value: Intel 8086
- label: SPEED
value: 4.77 MHz
- label: RAM
value: 128 Kb (up to 896 Kb)
- label: ROM
value: 16 Kb
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 80 x 25, 132 x 50 (matrix of 9 x 12 or 10 x 16)
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: 800 x 400 dots
- label: COLORS
value: monochrome
- label: SOUND
value: built-in speaker
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: '38(W) x 33(D) x 18(h) cm. Weight: 14 Kg (including two F.D. drives)'
- label: I/O PORTS
value: Parallel / IEEE-488, two RS232 / V24 ports, four expansion slots
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: |-
Two 5.25'' disk-drives, 612 kb each (or 1,2 Mb each as an option)\
Optional 10,6 Mb hard-disk
- label: OS
value: CP/M 86, MS-DOS
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: PSU built-in
- label: PRICE
value: |-
4421 (France, april 1983) - £2754 (U.K., 1983)\
10 MB hard disk and controler: $4495\
128 KB memory board $800\
384 KB memory board $2500
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- hardware
- software
- links
- docs
photos:
- title: ORIGINAL DESIGN
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_system_1.jpg
- title: HD VERSION
subtitle: ''
text: In this version, a 20 MB hard-disk replaced the second F.D. drive.
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_hdversion_1.jpg
- title: SYSTEM & H.D. UNIT
subtitle: ''
text: Victor 900 system with the 20 MB external Hard-disk unit.
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_systemplus5_1.jpg
- title: SYSTEM OPENED
subtitle: ''
text: Complete system with F.D.Drives management card (horizontally) and expansion memory and H.D. cards.
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_system_2.jpg
- title: MOTHERBOARD
subtitle: ''
text: |-
No specialized components on this very reliable board but lots of I/O chips from MOS (65xx series), Motorola (68xx series) and Intel.\
This board worked for 17 years without any breakdown, and is still running.
**(1)** 16 x 4864 chips holding 128 KB or RAM\
**(2)** Floppy disc and Hard disk cards connectors\
**(3)** BIOS ROM\
**(4)** Intel 8088 microprocessor. Here a Nec version\
**(5)** 4 x 16-bit expansion board slots\
**(6)** Switching power supply
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_motherboard_1.jpg
- title: MOTHERBOARD CLOSE-UP
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_mb_closeup_1.jpg
- title: F.D. CONTROLLER BOARD
subtitle: ''
text: The controller board is like a computer inside the computer. It uses an Intel 8048 processor **(1)** featuring internal RAM, ROM and I/O management, external ROM program **(2)** and three MOS 6522 I/O chips **(3)**.
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_fdboard_1.jpg
- title: REAR CONNECTORS
subtitle: ''
text: |-
**(1)** Keyboard connector\
**(2)** Reset switch\
**(3)** Light-pen connectors (1 for the display, 1 for the light-pen)\
**(4)** Light-pen external battery housing\
**(5)** Parallel Centronics printer connector\
**(6)** Display connector (Power and video signals)\
**(7)** Serial port 1\
**(8)** Serial port 2\
**(9)** Mains power plug, fuse and On/Off switch.
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_back_1.jpg
- title: THE BOX
subtitle: ''
text: Only one box holded the full system, computer + monitor + keyboard + manuals and software.
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_box_1.jpg
- title: DUST COVER
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/victor_9000_dustcover_1.jpg
adverts:
- title: FIRST VICTOR ADVERT (1982)
subtitle: ''
text: |-
with the original Victor design.
Advert said:
The Victor 9000. It's a desktop system computer designed to be a "cut above" the rest...
image: /media/museum/pubs/victor_9000_pub_1.jpg
- title: 'VICTOR AD #2 (1982)'
subtitle: ''
text: |-
In this advert, the Victor 9000 features was compared with those of four competitor computers: IBM PC, Xerox 820, Apple III and TRS-80 Model II.
Victor features was definitely higher than all of the desktop computers of the time, including the IBM PC.
image: /media/museum/pubs/victor_9000_pub_2.jpg
- title: 'VICTOR AD #3 (1982)'
subtitle: ''
text: In this advert, Victor tried to convince future IBM PC buyers that the Victor 9000 hardware technology was much more advanced than that of its competitor.
image: /media/museum/pubs/victor_9000_pub_3.jpg
- title: VICTOR TECHNOLOGIES CREATION
subtitle: ''
text: |-
January 1983
Advert said:
The conbination of Victor Business Products and Sirius Systems Technology Inc. creates a new company designed to meet the most demanding needs of the modern business office...\
... The result is Victor Technologies Inc., a company idally suited to dramatically impact today's international computer marketplace.
The Chairman of the board of the new Victor Technologies in Fred Sullivan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kiddle, Inc., a diversified $3 billion company. The financial support of this giant conglomerate will help focus Victor's goal of becoming one of the three leading computer companies in the world.\
President and Chief Executive Officer of the new company is Chuck Peddle. Acknowledged as the "father" of the personal computer concept, Peddle introduced this useful and very affordable third generation micro-computer in the European market with startling results..
image: /media/museum/pubs/victor_9000_pub_4.jpg
- title: 'VICTOR AD #4 (1983)'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/victor_9000_pub_5.jpg
- title: FRENCH ADVERT#1 (1982)
subtitle: ''
text: |-
"Computing: an era comes to the end"
"The Sirius era begins"
image: /media/museum/pubs/sirius_s1_pub-elephant_2.jpg
- title: FRENCH ADVERT#2 (1982)
subtitle: ''
text: |-
"Here comes Sirius 1 : the micro-computer which has an elephant memory"\
...\
"A new era for computing"
image: /media/museum/pubs/sirius_s1_pub-elephant.jpg
- title: FRENCH LEAFLET COVER
subtitle: ''
text: |-
One found the same leaflet in various countries, translated in many languages.
Title was: 'Sirius 1, the professional computer to the power of 16'
image: /media/museum/pubs/victor_9000_frenchleaflet_1.jpg
- title: FRENCH AD (DEC.1983)
subtitle: ''
text: This is an advert for Victornet, the net for Victor computers, based on Omninet.
image: /media/museum/pubs/sirius_victor_pub_victornet.jpg
hardware:
- title: DUAL RAM CARDS
subtitle: ''
text: Dual 128 KB RAM memory cards to be inserted in two of the four expansion slots.
image: /media/museum/hardware/victor_9000_dualramcards_1.jpg
- title: PLUS 5 EXTERNAL HARD-DISK UNIT
subtitle: ''
text: Plus 5 external Hard-disk unit was made in England by **Plus 5 Engineering Limited**. A 5, 10, 20, 30 or 40 MB H.D. drive could be installed in the case. This unit is a 20 MB version using a **Rodime** 5" full height disk drive.
image: /media/museum/hardware/victor_9000_plus5unit_1.jpg
- title: PLUS 5 CONTROLER CARD
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/victor_9000_plus5controller_1.jpg
- title: THE CARD ITSELF
subtitle: ''
text: The card is equiped with 64 KB. Video input/output are composite. It can digitalize the video source into a 256 x 255 px picture with 64 levels of grey. Acquisition time is 20ms.
image: /media/museum/hardware/victor_s1_card-dgs2-mid_1.jpg
- title: FRENCH ADVERT
subtitle: december 1983
text: The card cost 9800 FF (France, dec. 1983)
image: /media/museum/hardware/victor_s1_card-dgs2-mid_pub_1.png
screenshots:
- title: BOOT SCREEN
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/software/victor9000_boot_ss.jpg
- title: UCSD P.SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
text: The UCSD p-System operating system ran programs whose object code was pseudocode for an idealized 16-bit processor. It was transfered to 16-bit systems in the early 80's
image: /media/museum/software/victor_9000_ucsd_1.jpg
links:
- title: ACT Sirius 1 User Group (UK)
url: http://www.actsirius1.co.uk/
text: help and support to get the most out of your ACT Sirius 1 / Victor 9000 system
docs:
- title: TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL
url: http://www.siriususergroup.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pages/dl.htm
cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vide.gif
text: |-
[**TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL**](http://www.siriususergroup.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pages/dl.htm)written by Sirius/Victor Technologies
 compiled/archived by Sirius User Group\
 type of document : ZIP\
 size : 151 KB\
 source : [Act Sirius 1 User Group (UK)](http://www.actsirius1.co.uk/)
comments:
- author: Tony Davis (Oxfordshire, UK)
date: Tuesday 16th October 2018
text: I was interested to find this forum - although there doesn''t seem to be much genuine activity on it! In 1981 I was working for ACT (Applied Computer Techniques), the British company which partnered with Victor to market the Sirius 1 in the UK. I was in Scotts Valley California in September 1981 watching the prototype machines being assembled. I recorded a message which announced "I am the ACT Sirius 1 - the number one choice in business microcomputers!", which was played when a UK model was booted up.
- author: Bill Appleton (South West Englamd)
date: Thursday 19th May 2011
text: |-
Hi As in my previous posts the site is still very active. I have extensively updated the site with more information, pictures and DIY projects for you to do. Much of interest there. A forum is now up and running for all Sirius and Victor talk as well as a guestbook.\
Call over and see but please leave a record of your visit or add to the forum. If you cannot see a topic that interests you then start a new one. Look forward to your visit.
- author: Wayne McMorran, Prof Emeritus, CPE (San Luis Obispo, CA)
date: Friday 17th September 2010
text: |-
The Sirius computer was an exceptionally good computer compared to the IBM PC. The name was changed to Victor 9000 because "Sirius" was already in use and, since the company had acquired Victor Office Machines as a sale arm, it was changed to the Victor 9000. It turned out that people did not go to "office machine" stores for computer and so the IBM won out, even though it was inferrior.\
Written by a former Victor employee.
- author: StephenbPage (Scotland)
date: Sunday 10th October 2021
text: I remember seeing the Victor 9000 for the first time, the unique design of the monitor which was echoed in the shape of the case (or vice versa), the dark colouring of the keyboard and machine bezel which worked so well with the black drives and the very wide, heavy keyboard my first thoughts were oh my, this LOOKS powerful. I have a suspicion I wasn’t alone in that thought and that helped sell so many too. A great machine, lots of options, a useful and reliable business machine that was truly worth the money.
- author: Alexandre JALON (FRANCE)
date: Sunday 7th February 2021
text: Hello from France. Just a quick note as there are a few of us desperately looking for a working floppy OS (MS-DOS 2.xx if possible) for this machine. Indeed, none of our works properly and ... Impossible to find anywhere, apparently. If by chance you had any (and, why not, any utilities) contact me by email or on the Facebook group Ordinosaure. You would make a number of happy people who can not / no longer use this beautiful machine$).
- author: Martin Niec (United Kingdom (Kent))
date: Monday 11th May 2020
text: Hi guys do anyone of you have a software for Victor Vicki portable computer? I''m documenting restoration of one of these computers, but don''t have any software / boot disks. Thank you for your answers.
- author: andy piercy (UK)
date: Wednesday 4th March 2020
text: |-
There is one on Ebay right now in the UK!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SIRIUS-S1-VICTOR-9000-VINTAGE-COMPUTER-UNTESTED/362932205322?hash$item548071f70a:g:Lp8AAOSwqdNeXVie
- author: Pierre (France)
date: Friday 11th October 2019
text: Having been Sirius S1 user for years, it had an Intel 8086 microprocessor, not a 8088. Other wise, could it be CP/M86 compatible ?
- author: Mrs Rose Larsson. (Paris-France)
date: Thursday 26th July 2018
text: |-
Private Lender Bentex Funding Group Ltd.\
Greetings to you by (BFGL).\
We are a France-Paris based investment company known as Bentex Funding Group Ltd working on expanding its portfolio globally and financing projects.
We would be happy to fund and invest with you in any profitable project if you have any viable project we can finance by making mutual investment with you. If you are interested, kindly contact us on:avitinvestmentauthority2@gmail.com for more details.\
Looking forward hearing from you soonest.\
Yours truly,\
Mrs Rose Larsson.\
(Personal Assistant)\
Bentex Funding Group Ltd(BFGL)\
501 Avenue Montaigne,75008 Paris-France\
Paris-France.Bentex Funding Group Ltd (BFGL)
- author: Paul (usa)
date: Sunday 27th November 2016
text: In the early 80''s I worked in Detroit/Suburbs as a cash register tech, we sold Kingtron registers and I remember them bringing in a PC to handle sales info ect. I remember it booting up saying " I am the voice of the Victor 9000!" It was supposed to the new "thing", I bought stock in the company and still have the certificate even though they went bankrupt.
- author: Elena (CA/USA)
date: Thursday 21st July 2016
text: |-
I worked for Victor (Sirius) from 1982 to 1984. I miss those days.\
Was the best job I had (other than being a mom) and have some good memories. I wanted to buy one of the computers but even with discount I couldn''t afford.
- author: Eamonn Deering (Dublin (Ireland))
date: Tuesday 27th October 2015
text: I worked for a company in Dublin named Orbis in the mid 80''s installing and repairing the ACT Sirius 1. Spent my life cleaning floppy heads, the belts, tuning floppy and harddisk circuit boards, replacing those PSU which popped a lot. Great to see this site. Wrote a poker game that has a character generated guy jump over the Sirius 1 logo. Ha Ha. what memory''s. Still have one in acetic. I know if i power it up the PSU will pop. :)
- author: manuela (italy)
date: Monday 6th April 2015
text: |-
hi everyone,\
I have the pc victor in the cellar, bought by my father between 1978 and 1980 at least he told me this, the computer that we victor in the cellar is working and my father still has to be $ed in the floppy diskettes, as it can be worth now a relic of the genre?
- author: David Barradine (United Kingdom)
date: Friday 20th March 2015
text: I used to repair these machines in the 80''s, happiest days of my life, we used to charge £300 a time to replace the floppy drives, I used to get 10$ bonus on repairs then, I had just got married and bought our first house I made so much money I paid the mortgage off within 5 years, drove around in firms Ford Capri''s which were replaced every two years. Still working in IT but hate the job now, how i wish i could go back to those days.
- author: Bill Appleton (South West UK)
date: Thursday 4th December 2014
text: Hi Still round. Since last post site has expanded to take in other Victor machines. In the process of a new site just for Victor. Much tech info added to site etc. Forum had to go as being spammed to much. No time to sort it. Guest book waiting for your comments so pop in and see if there is something of interest for you and maybe help with a problem with your Sirius or Victor. Email through the site if you cannot find what you need and maybe we can help.
- author: James Clark (USA)
date: Friday 28th March 2014
text: I was working at Ford Motor Co. on staff at T$C Division. Victor was $ed to be the Official Ford Business Computer. They had two floors in the Sat $ Pepper towers In Dearborn for training. We loved them. Then the Engineering Department stated "you didn''t ask us, We are $ing the IBM AT as our standard" $It had just came out after Ford purchased THOUSANDS of Victors.$ Needless to say, Engineering won and we replaced all the Victors. The variable speed drive gave more room on the floppies and we liked the DOS better.
- author: David Peterson (USA)
date: Tuesday 11th December 2012
text: I worked for a computer distributor in the early 1980''s. The Victor 9000 would make a good business case study. They came into the industry, hired the best sales and support people. Signed up everyone as a dealer. Huge demand. Booked orders. When manufacturing started all was well until pipeline was filled. Projected orders were filled and shipped. The part of the company that was not grown was accounting. The company ramped up and shipped. No one was billed for anything. You could not contact accounting. I can remember the stacks of boxed Victor 9000''s lining the hallways... that were not ordered (or paid for). The Victor 9000 was a good product. Infrastructure was lacking.
- author: Chris (USA)
date: Saturday 8th September 2012
text: I have a Vicki in seemingly little used condition. I''m contemplating selling it, Entertaining offers.
- author: Pierre Chabot (Montreal Canada)
date: Tuesday 26th June 2012
text: The Victor computer included a proprietary spreadsheet software known as "VictorCalc", which was 3D. You could rotate the view of the rows/columns/sheets. I have not seen this functionality in other spreadsheet products since that time.
- author: michael fowler (Durham UK)
date: Sunday 24th June 2012
text: Hi I have a Victor Vicki in working order, with discs, which I wish to sell?
- author: Keith Harvey (Norfolk, England)
date: Saturday 17th March 2012
text: Nice to discover this Sirius nostalgia-fest. I started on a massive threaded-core translator designed in the 1960''s, but moved over to small computers in the mid-eighties via a Victor/Sirius twin-floppy machine. It was a real marvel for the time, and I wrote loads of commercial dBase routines on it (in good ol'' WordStar''s non-document mode), then moving to an ACT (Apricot) ''lugable'' with 10Mb HDD! Laplink was my life-saver too. Got a computer shop now but I still recall the early days when it was all just fun. The keyboard supplied was built to last and nice to use, but the monitor''s green on black display was pretty hard on the eyes after 15 hours non-stop coding. And the associated printer''s noise - horrendous! Well, we didn''t think ''Health and Safety'' so much back then...
- author: Hubert Ernst (Germany)
date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
text: I´ve selling this wonderful machines, when Chuck founded his German office in Frankfurt in 1983. Also later, when it became Victor Sirius, we had big success selling it to the market. At it´s time, it was far ahead of any IBM PC. Unfortunately Victor sold the company to the UK based Apricot Computer, which also finished a couple of months later. Anyhow, it was my most exiting time as a sales man!
- author: Rick Chandler (England)
date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
text: I worked for the UK distributor in 1982 and we developed several programmes in the publishing sector. This included interfaces to a Japanese professional OCR reader (Matsui I think) and a Linotype typesetter. This gave the ability to input typed material, process it on the Sirius (to take advantage of it''s soft fonts and high resolution) and output typesetter quality copy. In the days before desktop publishing this blew the minds of the print industry. I took this to the Global Launch of the Sirius at the Hannover Fair (now CeBIT) in Germany where Chuck Peddle and the Sirius team recruited global re-sellers. IBM were 3 days late in getting the IBM PC to the fair and their sales guys were all over the Sirius having to admit it was a far superior machine. Great to have been part of it. In 1986 I was engaged by Chuck and Kurt Souvey from the original Sirius team to help launch the Tandon computer range also designed by them but clearly not as innovative.
- author: Rick Chandler (England)
date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
text: I worked for the UK distributor in 1982 and we developed several programmes in the publishing sector. This included interfaces to a Japanese professional OCR reader (Matsui I think) and a Linotype typesetter. This gave the ability to input typed material, process it on the Sirius (to take advantage of it''s soft fonts and high resolution) and output typesetter quality copy. In the days before desktop publishing this blew the minds of the print industry. I took this to the Global Launch of the Sirius at the Hannover Fair (now CeBIT) in Germany where Chuck Peddle and the Sirius team recruited global re-sellers. IBM were 3 days late in getting the IBM PC to the fair and their sales guys were all over the Sirius having to admit it was a far superior machine. Great to have been part of it. In 1986 I was engaged by Chuck and Kurt Souvey from the original Sirius team to help launch the Tandon computer range also designed by them but clearly not as innovative.
- author: Jeff Hill (USA)
date: Sunday 8th January 2012
text: I was one of Victor''s early resellers, in Chicago, and got my start in the computer industry sellling the 9000. I made a big effort to catalog all the available software for the 9000, and started selling software mail-order to people with 9000s all over the world. We were also early AutoCad resellers, using the 9000 and taking advantage of the superior screen resolution. Eventually, years after they went out of business, I ended up moving to Scotts Valley, CA, where Victor/Sirius was based and ended up working for a company that had bought up much of their furniture...my desk still had a Victor asset tag on it.
- author: Werner Duerr (USA)
date: Thursday 13rd October 2011
text: I worked on several of these machines in the late 80''s and thought they were much better the IBM Compatibles. if they caught on we would have been asking "Is it Victor compatible" back in the 90''s.
- author: Bill Appleton (UK)
date: Wednesday 27th April 2011
text: I have at last done a considerable amount of updating to the site. I have already included many projects on how to maintain/repair your Sirius/Victor. Call by and join the forum.
- author: Bill Appleton (UK)
date: Wednesday 18th March 2009
text: I am in the process of updating the Sirius site to include Victor 9000, Victor Vicki (luggable and desktop) Victor Vi and some early Victor luggable laptops and a couple of ACT apricot machines. I also have a lot of other assicioated hardware.
- author: Paul Swainson (Scotland)
date: Friday 3rd December 2010
text: I still have this unit with a 10 Mg hard drive and is running on MS dos 2.1 and the screen gives a great display. The machine just runs and runs, just can''t bear to get rid of it, it just sits in my office at home.
- author: Joseph Bui (Earth)
date: Wednesday 23rd December 2009
text: This was the first computer I wrote any programs on. If you did not put a disk in any drive, it would boot into a GW-BASIC interpreter$ I think that counts as a built in language. A complete unit and many floppy disks are still in my parents'' attic $ I assume the heat and cold has rendered the system and disks non-functional.
- author: Clint Chaplin
date: Thursday 24th April 2008
text: I have several Sirius 1 / Victor 9000 computers in storage, and it's time to divest myself of them. I'm on the west coast of the United States.
- author: brigitte boarder (North Wales - UK)
date: Wednesday 20th February 2008
text: |-
Have one Victor Sirius with keyboard and monitor (think it's from the early '80's) with tons of software, plus some manuals. The machine has 2 floppy drives - 1 of which was working fine, the other intermittently. Last had it out the cupboard 4 years ago - is there any interest in this vintage machine still?
would prefer replies on this website pleaase
- author: Yves Guittard (Chicago)
date: Friday 3rd August 2007
text: I've had several Sirius S1/Victor 9000, a Vicki and even a Victor VI (the S1/PC "mutant"). I loved this machine! I remember I have written several utilities in assembly language (I still have the sources!) which were clones of the Norton Utilities for PC. Actually, I would like to buy a Victor 9000 in order to show to my son how the computer looked like 25 years ago...
- author: Ian (Montreal)
date: Wednesday 16th May 2007
text: |-
I have a 10Md hard drive Victor 9000 to sell.... I live in montreal.... contact me through my e-mail lavallee.ian@gmail.com or by phone 450-543-2543.\
The Computer is in good working condition and i have few extras!
- author: Bill Appleton (plymouth)
date: Monday 6th November 2006
text: |-
I am still here but due to being messed about by various web hosts the site is not being picked up by search engines. The site can be found at: www.actsirius.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk\
email me: siriusmanblueyonder.co.uk
- author: Jack (Scotland)
date: Saturday 5th August 2006
text: I have two of these machines and a hard drive stored at work. One of the machines is stored in the original packing. I can't remember how much software there is. Given the incredible improvement in financial efficiency they provided, I thought they may prove of interest to future generations.
- author: Nigel Bailey (Luton UK)
date: Wednesday 22nd March 2006
text: |-
OH good grief ! It's really scary, I found one of these beasties minus keyboard and OS, and I'm suddenly aware that almost all the links to sirius people are dead, I've managed to download a ton of software and software info, but getting anything on the hardware (beyond the obvious) seems to be impossible. All I can say is HELP. and where's Bill Appleton's sirius site?? I just get adverts now!\
I'd be well willing to host the hardware and software data on my bit of webspace, if it will mean that this machine won't die for a while longer.
- author: Andrew Craig (Northumberland - UK)
date: Tuesday 2nd November 2004
text: Hi, I had one of these Sirius 1 computers about 8 years ago but let it go thinking I could always get another if I wanted - Ive been looking for some time to buy another but cant seem to find one - any suggestions where would be welcome? - thanks
- author: jimbo (spain)
date: Saturday 21st August 2004
text: Hi, i NEED a boot disk to take out of the grave my victor vicki (luggable sirius) or a disk image and info about a image burner capable to run in a XT
- author: Nick Daisley (Oxford, UK)
date: Monday 28th June 2004
text: I remember my first ever experience in using spreadsheets was at evening classes in the summer of 1982, using Visicalc (I think) on Sirius PCs. I do remember that formatting a disk was always fun, as the drive could be heard speeding up as it approached the outer edge of the disk, packing data on as efficiently as possible.
- author: Bill Appleton (South West England UK)
date: Sunday 15th September 2002
text: Always available for Sirius chat.
- author: Gianfranco Venturino (Italy)
date: Wednesday 17th July 2002
text: I have pleasure to joint in this miniforum, thank you.
oc_id: 210
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604050628/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=210
date: '2023-06-04'
---
The Victor 9000 / Sirius S1 was conceived by Chuck Peddle who also designed the first Commodore PETs. This machine was quite innovative and superior in many points to the original IBM PC. It met a certain success in Europe as the IBM PC was not yet available there, whereas the Sirius S1 (european name of the Victor 9000) was. ACT sold a lot of these systems in UK, and their first "homemade" computer, the Apricot PC, borrowed a lot to the Sirius S1.
The mechanical keyboard is very complete and has its own 8035 cpu. The 12'' monochrome monitor is equiped with an anti-relflection filter and can be adjusted horizontaly and verticaly. Contrast and luminosity are controlled directly from the keyboard. The computer can display text ranging from 80 x 25 to 132 x 50. But the best feature is the high resolution reaching 800 x 400 pixels!
The Victor 9000 is equiped with a Codec which can sample and replay sounds in telephone quality. There are two V24 / RS232 ports and one parallel connector which can also be used as an IEEE-488 interface (to connect measurement instruments for example). There is also an optional light-pen, which is in fact a touch pen using resistive mesh on the CRT.
The two 5.25" disk-drives are single-sided and offer 600 kb each. But double-sided models were available as an option and offered 1.2 Mb each.\
The Victor 9000 was perhaps best known for how it was able to achieve such high density on it's floppy disks. It used variable speed disk drives; there were 9 different speeds used. As the drive head moved outward the speed would increase. It was really neat to hear the speed change as the drive head moved.
The Victor 9000 could run with MS-DOS or CP/M 86. Many languages were available: Basic 86, C-Basic, Cobol, CIS-Cobol, Pascal, Fortran, PL1, PLM, etc.; as well as some software: Wordstar, Spellstar, Mailmerge, Multiplan, etc.
From **Byte magazine** (11/82):\
Victor came to the computers competition much better prepared than most new entrants of the time.\
First of all, Victor was a subsidiary of Kidde Inc., a three billion dollar conglomerate.\
Second, Victor had experience in designing and manufacturing microprocessor-based electronic products. The company had been making calculators for 60 years.\
Third, Victor had a great deal of experience in dealing with business people and the needs of contemporary office.\
Fourth, The Victor 9000 distribution was supported by a network of 50 branch offices in the U.S.A.\
Fifth and perhaps most important, the chief designer of Victor's machine is not a novice but Chuck Peddle, a founder of the microcomputer industry who knows how to bring maximum performance to the market at an affordable price.
**Andreas Tauscher** reports:\
There is an additional user-port inside (this port is a complete 6522) the Computer. The disk drive has its own CPU, and was available as SS 360kB and later SS720kB and DS 1440kB! It used not a fixed RPM Speed, the Disk is separated in three zones with differnt speeds - Sound verry funny :)
**Grant MacDonald** reports:\
The variable speeds on the floppy drive were very distinctive and when I was at college there was a program available called "Drive Music" that accessed different sectors of the floppy to play tunes. We got into trouble for using it on the college machines.\
On boot up it used the sound hardware to say (in an American voice) something like: "I am the ACT Sirrius One, the number one choice in business computers."
**Michael Gillespie** reports:\
Andreas Tauscher is incorrect in his posting regarding disk capacity...the technical information listing is correct. Chuck achieved very high capacity diskettes through the use of constant bit-density. He did this on the Victor/Sirius machine through variable speed drives but he had done it before on the Commodore products through variable clock rates.\
I was the first and largest Victor dealer in Canada and also created multiuser Concurrent SP/M and multiuser Concurrent DOS for these machines. We introduced these products in London England the very day Victor went into chapter 11 !@#$%^&\*
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