website/content/museum/act-apricot-pc.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
ACT Apricot PC	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1983	Intel 8086	name company company_name specs tabs photos adverts emulators links docs comments related oc_id source Apricot PC /companies/act ACT label value NAME Apricot PC label value MANUFACTURER ACT label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR September 1983 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Microsoft Basic-86 and Basic Personal delivered on disks label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard, 101 keys, 8 function keys, 6 dynamic function keys (membrane keys)\ Built-in 40 characters x 2 lines LCD screen label value CPU Intel 8086 label value SPEED 4,77 Mhz label value CO-PROCESSOR Intel 8089 (for in/out tasks), 8087 optional arithmetic co-processor label value RAM 256k, up to 768k label value ROM Unknown label value TEXT MODES 80 x 25, 132 x 50 (character matrix 10 x 16) label value GRAPHIC MODES 800 x 400 dots label value COLORS Monochrome (colours facilities) label value SOUND 1 tone channel label value SIZE / WEIGHT Main unit : 42 x 32 x 10 cm\ Main unit : 6,4 kg / Monitor : 4,1 kg / keyboard : 1,5 kg label value I/O PORTS RS232c, Centronics, 2 x Apricot expansion slots label value BUILT IN MEDIA 1 or 2 x 3''1/2 disk-drives (315k or 720k), optional 5Mb and 10Mb hard-disks label value OS MS-DOS 2.0, CP/M 86, Concurrent CP/M\ UCSD p-system in option label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in PSU label value PERIPHERALS 1 additional 3''1/2 disk-drives, 5Mb and 10Mb hard-disks, trackball, printer, plotter label value PRICE 2 x 315 Kb floppies : £1595 (UK, november 84)\ 2 x 720 Kb floppies : £1795 (UK, november 84) photos adverts emulators links docs title subtitle text image INSIDE THE APRICOT A single board and a clear design for an unanimously recognized reliability, even several years after the Apricot's launch. **(1)** Serial RS 232 connector for printers and modems.\ **(2)** Parallel/Centronics printer connector.\ **(3)** These 2 ROMs hold the BIOS, the boot program and various self-checking routines.\ **(4)** Two expansion connectors (Apricot specific). Memory expansions or a modem can be connected.\ **(5)** optional Intel 8087 mathematical co-processor.\ **(6)** 16-bit 8086 microprocessor (with a 16 bit bus, unlike the 8088 which only offers an 8 bit bus).\ **(7)** Circuit dedicated to Input/Output (screen, keyboard, peripherals...).\ **(8)** 256 KB original RAM consisting of 32 chips.\ **(9)** The Apricot is the first professional computer to adopt the new 3,5" disk format from Sony, which can store 315 KB (single-sided) or 720 Kb. (double-sided).\ **(10)** 9 inch monochrome monitor (green phosphor). The display is very accurate. null title subtitle text image AN ORIGINAL KEYBOARD It's a pity that our modern PCs didn’t follow this idea of integrating a programmable LCD display into the keyboard. The Apricot's one is very useful, it can display time, some text, or can be used as a calculator. Associated with its six sensitive function keys, it can also display the different functions of currently running software. **(1)** Eight traditional function keys.\ **(2)** Six sensitive programmable function keys.\ **(3)** 2 line x 40 character LCD display. null title subtitle text image UK ADVERT, OCT. 1983 Advert says:\ A computer that, for the first time, works with you rather than just for you. Hardware and Software co-ordinating perfectly, Apricot arrives complete and ready to work.\ The MicroScreen on the keyboard, unique to Apricot, performs a variety of practical functions as a calculator, calendar, time display, and as a window on the screen. Most signifIcantly the MicroScreen prompts and assists the user by presenting simple options whilst running applications.\ Incorporating the very latest advances in computer technology, Apricot uses 31/2" pocket-size diskettes. Secure and compact, yet offering increased storage capacity.\ As you'd expect with a 4th generation system, Apricot offers true 16-bit processing, multi-processor architecture and 256k RAM as standard. With Pulsar 16-bit business software and compatibility with the best selling ACT Sirius 1 and IBM PC, Apricot already has the largest available software library. Apricot includes over £750 of software­ - SuperCalc spreadsheet, business and communications software - to ensure that your system is immediately effective. And because executives are not office bound, Apricot offers portability, a further feature aimed at improving efficiency.\ Powerful sleek and sophisticated and all at an amazing 4th generation price. null title subtitle text image UK ADVERT, JULY 1984 null title url platform text APE Plus : Apricot Emulator http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/ai/ape.html MS DOS Commercial emulator that emulates PC/Xi/Xen, the `F' Series, and the Apricot FP Portable title url platform text QDAE http://www.seasip.info/Unix/QDAE/ Multiplatform QDAE is a Quick and Dirty Apricot Emulator for Linux, Windows and MacOS X. This version emulates the Apricot F1; it may support other F-series Apricots as well. title url text ACT Apricot computers support page http://www.actapricot.org/home/ Useful infos. Some links might be outdated title url text ACT Apricot Computers Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/actapricot/ Discussion list for the ACT Apricot computers. title url cover text USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 1 http://www.actapricot.org/support/ null [**USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 1**](http://www.actapricot.org/support/)written by UserPrompt Guides  compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org) title url cover text USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 2 http://www.actapricot.org/support/ null [**USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 2**](http://www.actapricot.org/support/)written by UserPrompt Guides  compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org) author date text Dave whale (Neath Abbey, W Glam) Thursday 20th May 2021 David Fisher. They are DOS discs 3.5" $ work on IBM I think, have you tried I know the format is a little different IBM allow less files. I could copy to IBM format but don''t know if the DOS $ BIOS calls work. Regards Dave author date text Dave whale (Neath Abbey, W Glam) Thursday 20th May 2021 Charles Whitmore I tried to email you but W10 refuses don''t know why. I may be able to help assuming the discs haven’t ‘faded’. Are your drives SS 315m or DS 720m. Stuffs in loft so can’t say which I have. Regards Dave author date text Charles Whitmore (United Kingdom) Sunday 4th April 2021 Does anyone know where I can get a set of operating disks for the apricot pc and an xi as I can’t find mine and I would quite like to revisit these 2 computers now I have retired. If you can help then please email me at charles.whitmore@icloud.com thank you author date text Malcolm Baird (United Kingdom) Saturday 3rd April 2021 I have an Apricot Xen 5, processor box only, no keyboard, no screen, no peripherals. It has a hard drive (capacity???) and 3.5" floppy. I don''t know if it works, but maybe useful for spares. Therefore free to a good home. I can deliver in person to South West Scotland area but currently due to Covid restrictions, not to England. author date text chris (UK) Saturday 31st October 2020 I have an Apricot PC (dual floppy) which I have powered up ok, but I don''t have any Apricot software disks. Does anyone know where I could get the minimal disks needed to run the machine and see if it works?\ Obviously then some software to run would be nice too\ Any ideas? author date text Erik Gunder (United Kingdom Denmark France) Saturday 18th July 2020 Hi, I have an Apricot from 1984, complete with disks and manuals. Would like to sell - any offers or questions please email. author date text Peter Elliott (Wigston Leicester UK) Monday 15th July 2019 I have a Apricot LS 550 model LV 83741-0 Could it be of use to you guys ? I know nothing about PC !!$$128559$ author date text Robert Sunday 10th July 2016 Hi i search the computer who see in the movie Electric Dreams... what is the model and where is possible to buy it. i know is a vintage computer ^^ but i want to make a exposure about movie''s computer ...thank''s author date text David Fisher (UK) Tuesday 24th May 2016 Hi our company used apricot to run out factory manufacturing snooker balls, we still have loads of the 3.5" disks (Supercalc) and would love to access some of the infromation, does anyone know how to convert the disk to work on dos. I know it can be done as he have had it done before. author date text Sergio (Italia) Sunday 22nd May 2016 Hello, I''''m looking for the original Apricot mic for my act portable, if someone has one to sell please contact me. cottony@virgilio.it author date text Sergio (Italia) Saturday 21st May 2016 Hello, I''m looking for the original Apricot mic for my act portable, if someone has one to sell please contact me. author date text Iliya Kovac (Birmingham, England) Wednesday 21st January 2015 My first ever contract was with Apricot Computers in Birmingham in the R/D, England. I wrote all the test software for their computers (except the hard drive). Apricot PC/Xi, F1 and another one I can''t remember. The software tested the computers and did burn-in test in production. I wrote an O/S that loaded the programs and ran them. Even did a simple GUI menu. After a few months I went down to manufacturing and saw my program running on loads of computers. So satisfying. The S/W development team was really looked after. Even had own lunches cooked to order and eat them at the computers while still working. We were paid to work during meals! author date text Graham Smith (New Zealand) Tuesday 23rd December 2014 Hello John Moore, I recently acquired an Apricot xi. It posts but the main transformer in the power supply is over heating$ smells a bit. Can you help with parts? author date text John Moore (New Zealand) Wednesday 1st January 2014 Besides a F1e originally purchased back in 1985, I also have 3 Apricot PCs in differing stages of repair. I have pilfered the ram of 512k out of one to add to the 256k already in another to bring it up to its maximum of 768k. All the PCs have 720k double sided drives (as opposed to the 315k single sided drive). I did get one with an external 20meg Winchester drive. From memory I think the PCs were about NZ$7500 and up to 10grand+ for the xi version. The 20meg drive (back in the mid 80s) we''re about 5 grand - a bit ridiculous by today''s standards. I had a variety a software with the various computers, which included Wordstar a fairly good word processing package. All the previous F1 programmes worked including the activity. I seem to remember that the PC also came with its own version of activity ...but not too sure. One of the PCs was running the ACT version of DOS3.2. Unfortunately this eventually failed and I had to fall back to 2.1..doh! As an aside I got two 12 inch screens and one 9 inch with these computers. Unfortunately we had problems with ants in our roof and one of the 12 inch monitors became a fairly big ants nest!!! Strike out one monitor!! I loved the keyboard of the PC with the extra screen that brought up certain features of the software being run. Why oh why did ACT not make these IBM compatible, it would have been fantastic.\ I did see a pic of the ACT Zen with a telephone as part of the keyboard. I think this was the 286 version with the 20meg drive. author date text WHS (US) Wednesday 28th December 2011 Apricot was not the first outside of Japan witht the 3.5"\ HP preceded Apricot with 3.5" microfloppies. (HP 150 eg.) HP announced they had moved 25,000 of them in June 1983 (EDN 11/10/1983 p49) author date text GP (South Africa) Thursday 20th January 2011 Was browsing the Internet for the boot up files for the apricot. I still have an original apricot PC which start the development of what is now an extensive product sold internationally. As part of a display we would like to show the original software as it was developed on the apricot (not sure if these disk will even work) but we don''t have the original startup boot disks (dual drive floppy machine). Any suggestions. author date text Old Geek (US) Saturday 4th September 2010 I recently found an apricot (the original) and want to restore it. Any tips or user groups? /museum/act-apricot-f1 /museum/act-apricot-f2-f10 /museum/act-apricot-portable /museum/act-apricot-xen /museum/act-apricot-xi 499 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230606233659/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=499 2023-06-06

After having imported the Victor Sirius for years in the UK, ACT produced its own computer largely inspired by the Sirius : the Apricot PC.

It was supposed to be transportable as there is a handle on the main-unit ! If you really want to move your Apricot this way, the keyboard can be clipped to the main-unit.

Several features made this computer quite technically innovative :
• the Apricot PC was possibly the first computer outside Japan to use 3.5'' disk-drives (315k or 720k),
• the graphics quality and features were excellent (800 x 400) and came directly from the Victor Sirius,
• the keyboard was quite original with 8 "normal" and 6 flat programmable function keys along with a built-in LCD screen (40 characters / 2 lines) which displayed the function of the keys. This feature was largely used by the included software, but not much by third-party software.

This small LCD screen could also display the current line of text you're working on and there's even a contrast knob on the right of the keyboard.

It's possible to transfer files and some software from a Sirius or an IBM PC to the Apricot PC by connecting them with a special cable. There's also an IBM PC emulator which forces the Apricot to act like an IBM PC. It works well for some applications but not all.

Some software was supplied with the Apricot PC : Supercalc, various system tools, asynchronous communication, IBM-PC emulator, Microsoft Basic-86, Basic Personal and ACT Manager (a graphical interface for MS-DOS). Word, Multiplan, Wordstar, dBase II, C-Pascal, Pascal UCSD, C, Fortran, Cobol and Basic Compiler 5.35 were available optionally.

In 1984, ACT launched new versions of the Apricot PC with built-in hard-disks and a different colour case. They were called Apricot Xi.

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About IBM/PC compatibility, Greg Taylor specifies:
Concerning the early Apricot PCs (including the Xi) the reason they could not run all MS-DOS programs is that while they came with a copy of MS-DOS, they did not have an identical BIOS so any calls to specific BIOS modules could often fail.
For example, dBase III could not run (on mine anyway) but a competitor product called (I think) DBXL did run. That apart, they were very nice computers for their time with 3.5" disks (nearly everyone else was still using 5.25") and high-quality graphics.

Ian Foggon reports:
The original Apricot PC also came in another flavour you have not listed. It was possible to have these units upgraded to 286 IBM compatible standard by Apricot UK. This involved the replacement of the motherboard and the addition of a 20Mb Miniscribe HDD in the place of one of the Sony 3.5” FDDs. My Father had this done to his Apricot PC back in 1988. These units had their own specially written manuals, and the keyboards were re-keyed to make them IBM compatible too.