website/content/museum/altos-computer-systems-acs-586-686.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Altos Computer Systems ACS-586 / 686	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1983	Intel 8086	name company company_name specs tabs photos adverts comments oc_id source ACS-586 / 686 /companies/altos-computer-systems Altos Computer Systems label value NAME ACS-586 / 686 label value MANUFACTURER Altos Computer Systems label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR January 1983 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard (108 keys), editing & numeric keypad, 16 function keys label value CPU Intel 8086 label value SPEED 10 Mhz label value CO-PROCESSOR Intel 8089 (I/O), Z80 (Serial ports) label value RAM 512 kb (up to 1Mb) label value ROM 32 kb label value TEXT MODES 40 x 25, 80 x 25, 132 x 40 label value GRAPHIC MODES 800 x 325 label value COLORS Monochrome label value I/O PORTS 6 x RS232, Serial expansion, multibus bus, Ethernet, Altos-Net (RS422) label value BUILT IN MEDIA One 5''1/4 disk-drive, 1Mb\ Winchester hard-disk (10, 30 or 40Mb) label value OS Xenix, MP/M-86, Pick, MS-DOS label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in PSU label value PERIPHERALS 512k RAM expansion, additional RS232 ports (4), network card, second hard-disk, streamer label value PRICE $7990 (System with 512 KB RAM, 10 MB hard disk and 1 MB floppy disk) photos adverts title subtitle text image COMPLETE SYSTEM null title subtitle text image LARGE VIEW null title subtitle text image REAR SIDE **(1)** 6 console connectors\ **(2)** Worknet connector\ **(3)** External HDD connectors\ **(4)** Aux. port connectors null title subtitle text image INSIDE #1 The upper part holds the switching power supply unit, the hard disk drive (here a 20 MB), and the floppy disc drive. null title subtitle text image INSIDE #2 The bottom part holds the I/O board and the main CPU board. **(1)** Intel 80286 processor\ **(2)** 1 MB RAM chips\ **(3)** console I/O chips null title subtitle text image FRENCH AD "From 1 to 16 users" null title subtitle text image FRENCH AD #2 Isn't this a stupid advert ?!\ Look carefully at each face ! null author date text J.Roco (USA) Monday 16th March 2015 I wrote multi-user programs for vertical markets on altos computers running MP/M using a slightly modified version of dBase II (modified to lock files and records.) The last was the 686. One of the contributions to Altos''s loss was a motherboard failure caused by lack of adequetly seating chips into their sockets. We had to travel to every site and physically reseat every chip on the motherboard!!! author date text joel wylan (usa) Wednesday 20th October 2010 i worked at altos as tech support on all platforms for all programming languages. my first silicon valley job. was liason between developers and code vendors. what a trip finding this website. author date text SP Friday 3rd July 2009 Searching for Xenix 3.2f for this machine (I got one). I would agree the help provided, please. Thanks. You can locate me in the classiccmp e-mail list author date text Stephen Silberman (Earth) Tuesday 29th April 2003 I had one of these back in the mid 80's or so. It was state of the art then. We ran it with MPM as an operating system. That was an early multi user version of CPM. We had three of them networked together and could share files and programs. We used it for accounting applications in a garment manufacturing business. It was a big step up from our Intertec Superbrain which preceded it. 515 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230605030330/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=515 2023-06-05

The ACS-586 was a multipost system which could handle 5 users or more (8) with optional cards. To connect the terminals, there were several RS232 ports at the back of the system, labeled JA, JB, JC, JD, JE, etc... The ports not used by the terminals could be used to connect any serial peripheral, i.e. modem or printer.

The 186 was the first computer from a big company to use Xenix as its native operating system. Xenix was the Microsoft "adaptation" of Unix.

This system was quite well designed with its squashed hexagon shaped box and its thin monitor. These were medium-sized desktop cases, usually beige but often came in custom colors.

A fully-loaded 586 contained four printed-circuit boards.
The main board held the 80186 and 512 KB of RAM; a Z80 I/O processor supporting six serial I/O ports, floppy disc access, and an RN422 LAN; and sundry memory management components allowing the 586 to support Xenix.
A second board held a hard disk and tape controller with an Intel 8089 I/O processor
An optional communication board provided an Ethernet chipset and processors supporting either the X25 or SNA protocols, or four additional serial I/O ports.
The fourth board was an optional memory expansion board providing an additional 512 KB of RAM.

It had a 5''1/4 disk-drive built-in on the right part of the front panel, and a hard-disk on the left part.
A real-time clock was included with the system. There were 128 semi-graphic symbols available.

The Altos 686 appears to be the same machine as the 586, but with an 80286 processor.
Altos also produced an 8-bit version of this system, called the ACS-580.