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---
title: Altos Computer Systems ACS-8000
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1978'
cpus:
- Z80A
params:
name: ACS-8000
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-12_1.jpg
company: /companies/altos-computer-systems
company_name: Altos Computer Systems
specs:
- label: NAME
value: ACS-8000
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Altos Computer Systems
- label: TYPE
value: Professional Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: '1978'
- label: KEYBOARD
value: Terminal keyboard
- label: CPU
value: Z80A
- label: SPEED
value: 4 Mhz
- label: RAM
value: From 32 kb to 208 kb
- label: ROM
value: Unknown
- label: TEXT MODES
value: Display features depend on the attached terminal
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: designed to fit a standard 19
- label: I/O PORTS
value: several RS232 ports (depending on models), parallel
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: |-
8'' disk-drives : from 512 kb to 2 Mb\
10, 20 or 40 Mb Winchester hard-disk (upgradable to 80 Mb)\
17 Mb magnetic streamer (ACS-8000 MTU only)
- label: OS
value: CP/M, MP/M, MP/M II and Oasis
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: Built-in PSU
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- software
photos:
- title: ACS-8000-12
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-12_1.jpg
- title: INSIDE THE ACS-8000-12
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-12_inside.jpg
- title: REAR OF THE ACS-8000-12
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-12_rear.jpg
- title: REAR OF THE ACS 8000-2
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-2_rear.jpg
- title: REAR OF A ACS 8000-10
subtitle: ''
text: Apart from the big fan, we can see the ouputs for 6 terminals, i.e. 6 users.
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-10_rear.jpg
- title: 8'' DISK-DRIVE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-2_8pouces_closeup.jpg
- title: INSIDE AN ACS 8000-10
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-10_inside.jpg
- title: '"PLAYBOY" MODEL'
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Ok, it's just a sticker...
Picture courtesy of [Albert's Virtual Computer Museum](http://users.knoware.nl/users/stuurmn/).
image: /media/museum/photos/altos_acs8000-playboy_1.jpg
adverts:
- title: U.S. ADVERT (1979)
subtitle: ''
text: |-
The advert says:
The new ASC8000-6 single board computer is packed with ultra-high technology: Z80 double density computer, up to 2048Kb of high speed RAM, Floppy-disk and Winchester Hard Disk controllers, DMA, up to 6 serial / 2 parallel I/O, optional 32 bit floating point processor... All on one board, fully socketed, fully documented, reliable and maintainable...
image: /media/museum/pubs/altos_acs8000_pub_2.jpg
- title: U.S. ADVERT (1980)
subtitle: ''
text: |-
The advert says:
The Altos ACS8000-6 series. It's a barrier breaker in every sense. Our entry level, single-user, hard-disk system with floppy backup is priced under $10,000...\
... With MP/M at the helm, your Altos system can support up to four simulteneous users with 48 KB RAM each plus 58 MB of Winchester storage and 4 MB of floppy backup. And that adds up to the first microcomputer to give you the power and performance of a minicomputer.
image: /media/museum/pubs/altos_acs8000_pub_1.jpg
- title: FRENCH ADVERT.
subtitle: ''
text: This advert was for the Serie 5 and the ACS-8000 systems.
image: /media/museum/pubs/altos_serie5_pub.jpg
- title: SPANISH ADVERT (MAY 1982)
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/altos_spanish-pub_1982.jpg
screenshots:
- title: FORTRAN SCREENSHOT ?!
subtitle: ''
text: This looks like a Fortran program...
image: /media/museum/software/altos_acs8200_fortran_ss.jpg
comments:
- author: Steve (USA)
date: Thursday 13rd September 2018
text: I programmed one of these using dBaseII in the early 80s. It used the MPM operating system and could have several Televideo dumb terminals attached. It had a 10MB hard drive. I still have it! I''m starting to try to figure out how to sell it.
- author: Mike P. (USA)
date: Wednesday 29th November 2017
text: My father used one of these systems in his office for the food research laboratory he worked at in the late 70''s. I remember the 8" floppy drives were separate from the processor. There was a big blue CRT/keyboard terminal of unknown make, and a big floor standing Texas Instruments dot matrix printer. I believe the system was serial connected to several pieces of lab equipment. I was only 7 or 8 at the time, and this whole thing fascinated me, it was the cat''s meow.
- author: medge (Australia)
date: Tuesday 18th November 2014
text: |-
Used an Altos 8000 running UCSD p-system natively in my first job back in ''84. 48k ram, split over 4 users with some shared memory for semaphores etc.\
Needed to use overlays in p-system to handle the larger programmes. Each overlay had to have the same procedure names in the smae location to work.\
I remember with the 20MB version you needed to toggle the on/off switch a few time to get the drive up to speed before it would boot from it.
- author: Phil Glau (USA)
date: Wednesday 31st July 2013
text: |-
My dad had one for his business but it had two 8" floppies and no HHD. I suspect it was much cheaper to have a second floppy rather than a HHD. I was about 12 or 13 at the time.
I learned BASIC and COBOL on it and ran CP/M as the operating system.
I think the reason he bought it was because Peachtree Accounting ran on it (not 100$ sure about this, but over the years, he stuck with Peachtree and I think it was because of backwards ''compatibility''. Eventually the data was transferred from the Altos to a Windows machine of some sort, but remained PeachTree)
- author: Phil Glau (USA)
date: Wednesday 31st July 2013
text: |-
My dad had one for his business but it had two 8" floppies and no HHD. I suspect it was much cheaper to have a second floppy rather than a HHD. I was about 12 or 13 at the time.
I learned BASIC and COBOL on it and ran CP/M as the operating system.
I think the reason he bought it was because Peachtree Accounting ran on it (not 100$ sure about this, but over the years, he stuck with Peachtree and I think it was because of backwards ''compatibility''. Eventually the data was transferred from the Altos to a Windows machine of some sort, but remained PeachTree)
- author: R Ryan (USA)
date: Monday 11th April 2011
text: The TCU-8 is not a computer but an 8 channel RS-422 asynchronous terminal multiplexor. Altos, Wyse or other RS-232 serial terminals were plugged into the connectors labeled 0-7. They could be daisy chained together. The address of the unit in the chain was set with the DIP switches.
- author: Jason (Birmingham, West Midlands, UK)
date: Saturday 19th March 2011
text: |-
I work as an ICT Technician at a Secondary School here in the UK. The caretaker bought in from home last week an Altos TCU-8 computer.
It has a row of LED''s at the front labelled 0 to 7, a bank of input connectors at the back also labelled 0 to 7, a larger input connector, kettle lead 3 pin power socket, on / off switch and a 5 row dip switch component.
Any information about this computer would be helpful. There''s nowhere to connect any type of TV, monitor or keyboard. The front row of LED''s look like something the Altair 8800 would have.
- author: john (syracuse new york)
date: Monday 27th December 2004
text: |-
We used an altos 8000 system with\
20 meg hard drive and 8 inch floppy\
from 1982 to perhaps about 1989\
they were 100% reliable all that time\
and were obsolte long before being worn out.\
They weighed about 80-88 pounds and\
had something like 256 k of ram for\
allegedly 3 or 4 users and the operating system\
ran cpm and mpm on it, still remember "pip"\
instead of copy. Had 8 megaherz cpu\
Very very good quality machine.
oc_id: 456
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230413211351/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=456
date: '2023-04-13'
---
The ACS-8xxx were multi-user systems. They could support from 1 to 4 users, but you could also get them in versions for up to 9 users and a supervisor. In appearance, they were large and heavy rectangular desktop boxes with Z80 or 68000 CPUs (ACS-68000 series).
They used a large custom single-board computer the size of the case. The drive controller was a separate half-card mounted on top of the SBC. The early 8000s had separate cases for the 8" FD & HD. In later models the drives and cards were integrated into the same case.
The 8000 systems were labeled ACS-8000-x, where x indicates the size of the disk-drive and hard disk :
x=1 : 500 kb (SS/SD) FDD\
x=2 : 1000 kb (DS/SD) FDD\
x=3 : 1000 kb (SS/DD) FDD\
x=4 : 2000 kb (DS/DD) FDD\
x=10 : 10 Mb HD\
x=12 : 20 Mb HD\
x=14 : 40 Mb HD
The ACS-8000 had a 10, 20 or 40 MB Winchester hard-drive and could be upgraded to 80 MB. Hard-disk models also had disk-drives. CP/M, MP/M II or Oasis were the available operating systems.\
The ACS-8000 MTU had a 17 MB magnetic streamer.
The ACS-8000 was quite similar to the [Altos Serie 5](/museum/altos-computer-systems-serie-5/) but was more powerful.
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