website/content/museum/icl-personal-computer.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
ICL Personal computer	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1981	Intel	name company company_name specs tabs photos comments oc_id source Personal computer /companies/icl ICL label value NAME Personal computer label value MANUFACTURER ICL label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1981 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke 102 keys with function keys and numeric keypad label value CPU Intel or AMD 8085A label value SPEED 3 MHz label value RAM 64 KB up to 512 KB label value VRAM Depending on the video terminal used label value TEXT MODES 80 characters x 25 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES None label value COLORS Monochrome label value SOUND Beeper label value SIZE / WEIGHT 50.5(W) x 40.5(D) x 14(H) cm. label value I/O PORTS 2 x serial ports. Serial printer and keyboard on terminal label value BUILT IN MEDIA 2 x 5.25'' 256 KB Double sided / Double density FDD label value OS CP/M or MP/M label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply label value PRICE From £1,800 photos title subtitle text image COMPLETE SYSTEM Complete running system with an ICL dot matrix printer, actually an Oki Microline 82, and a Maplin 300 baud modem. null title subtitle text image BACK **(1)** Keyboard connector\ **(2)** Parallel printer DB25 connector\ **(3)** Host/serial DB25 connector\ **(4)** 2 x serial port. The upper one is dedicated to the video terminal null title subtitle text image INSIDE SYSTEM **(1)** The backplane features 8 connectors and uses a specific RAIR format\ **(2)** Serial board\ **(3)** 64 KB memory board. Uses 32 x 4116 RAM chips\ **(4)** Processor board\ **(5)** Floppy disk controller board\ **(6)** Switching power supply unit and large fan\ **(7)** 2 x 5.25" Tandon FDD. Double side, double density, 48TPI, 780 KB models. null title subtitle text image INSIDE VIDEO TERMINAL The video terminal features a complete computer board including a 8085 processor, ROM an RAM memory, and programmable I/O ports. null author date text Steve Johnson (USA) Wednesday 9th March 2011 I used to work as a test engineer in the ICL plant in Kidsgrove where these machines were made. I automated the test suite by utilising the 25th line of the screen which you could both write to and read from. This enabled the machine to know where it was up to after a reboot say after formatting the Hard Disc. This greatly reduced the number of manual interventions required to test the machine and earned me an award from the ICL Suggestion Awards Scheme. author date text Ruben Hillier Monday 6th September 2021 I have the icl model 31 but it doesn''t work I was hoping someone would be able to help. It''s been in a attic for a long time got it down to try it all iy dose is show ":" on the screen. It did power up once and had some righting then "A: " But froze and touching keyboard did nothing but beep. I put an ms dos fopy in nothing happened. author date text Jim Hancock (UK) Wednesday 10th March 2021 In about 1982, I was working in the Magnetic Tape Group, part of “Peripheral Product Engineeringâ€� in ICL Kidsgrove. The department received a “Robbogramâ€�, demanding a £100 terminal for this machine. Robbograms were terse messages from Rob Wilmott, so rather like a command from God! Somehow this requirement ended up with George Fitzgerald, my manager, and it ended up in my lap. I had NO idea about terminals, keyboards, RS232 etc, so it was a steep learning curve. I first played with an ADM3A terminal, a very basic machine, almost a glass teletype, Not really up to the job, and costing well over £200. Fortunately someone in our commercial department contacted Nissei Sangyo, who represented (amongst many other manufacturers) Kokusai Electric, a terminal manufacturer based not far from Tokyo. They were developing a new range of terminals, and we had 3 prototypes, KDS7361, KDS7362 and KDS7363. KDS7362 had the right balance of features, and we validated it using a Rair Black Box. When ICL wanted to launch the Personal Computer, the tooling wasn’t ready for injection moulded cases, George Fitzgerald and I persuaded Kokusai to make 250 machines with vacuum moulded cases. They weren’t happy, but George could be very persuasive. Real typists found that the 2-key lockout keyboard slowed them down, and some Wordstar issues led to a “release 2â€� product, with n-key rollover keyboard and a specific Wordstar mode which prevented characters disappearing if you typed too fast. I got two (exhausting) trips to Japan out of this project. I remember bringing a release 2 product back as hand luggage, only to find at Heathrow I couldn’t raise the import duty, and had to phone a friend! It was a very successful product, an OEM sales group selling it was formed, and later colour terminals were introduced, but by this time I was back in my comfort zone, introducing 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch cartridge tape drives. Jim Hancock author date text Stephen Dewey (United Kingdom) Friday 13rd October 2017 The technical authors at BRA01 were very keen on using the game that was started with the command Advent.something to "learn" about the RAIR $) author date text Murray (New Zealand ) Saturday 25th June 2016 Hello I have a ICL 8120/01 with 6 xtra cards and all the original ICL software,cp/m disks, ICL PC10 ,,,murraykellyjacob@gmail.com\ Would like to know what the /01 means in 8120/01 ,, author date text Jon Hales (UK) Sunday 12th October 2014 I have an ICL 8122/05 (Rair Black Box) with 8088 and a 10Mb Rodime Hard Disk, but haven''t tried to switch it on. Having removed all components, I powered on PSU alone which looks OK, but it''s providing only 10.3 volt instead of 12.0 volt. The HD has several labels referring to maintenance replacement of transistors, so under-volting PSU might be deliberate. Any info or software much appreciated. author date text Ian White (uk) Thursday 7th November 2013 I designed and manufactured the first 3000-4000 power supplies for this machine. The main feature of this power supply was that it was one of the first designs to use the new power MOSFET transistors that switched at high frequency and reduced the size and weight of the power supply. author date text Peter Roberts (Manchester, England) Sunday 24th February 2013 I have an ICL Personal Computer, Catalogue Serial No - 8120/01, can anyone give me any info on this machine as I''m struggling to find anything about it. author date text Ian Lever (UK) Tuesday 19th February 2013 I used to write instructions for modifying the ICL PC2 for re-sale as BT machines$ the ICL badges were literally prised off, and lovely new brown BT M22xx badges stuck on in their place! I provided final line support within BT for the M2200 series - interfacing with ICL, and found ICL great to work with. author date text Bill Perry (UK) Thursday 11th October 2007 The PC2 series were also sold on to British Telecom through BT Merlin for them to resell. They were rebadged as the M2200 series. Having the the same numbers at the end as those shown on the first page. e.g. Model 15 =M2215, Model 26 = M2225 etc. 752 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230607225818/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=752 2023-06-07

In the early 70s, the British government whished an English computer company could compete with the world major manufacturers. Some years later, the ICL company became one of the larger manufacturer of computers in Europe and did really compete with U.S. companies.

In 1980, before the ICL Personal Computer was born, the company met serious financial problems, the English government paid several million pounds and ICL asked the British RAIR CIE to provide the ICL-PC hardware.

This ICL Personal Computer is thus exactly the same machine as the RAIR Black Box system, a backplane 8085 based system using a serial video terminal as video display, and CP/M (single user) or MP/M (multi-user) operating systems.

Two series were released. The PC1 series is the model pictured here. The PC2 series was the same design case as the ICL PC Quattro. This used an Intel or AMD 8085AH-2 CPU at 5MHZ

The model numbers for the PC1 series were:
Model 10 (pictured here) - 64 KB RAM, 2 x 5.25" FDD, CP/M O.S.
Model 30 with a 5 MB hard disc, CP/M O.S.
Model 31 64 KB RAM, three users, 5 MB hard disc, MP/M O.S.
Model 32 256 KB RAM, three users, 10 MB hard disc, MP/M O.S.

Those of the PC2 series were:
Model 15 64 KB RAM, 2 x 5.25" FDD, CP/M O.S.
Model 25 with a 5 MB hard disc, CP/M O.S.
Model 26 64 KB RAM, three users, 5 MB hard disc, MP/M O.S.
Model 35 256 KB RAM, three users, 10 MB hard disc, MP/M O.S.

Agnus WR Gulliver reports us:
There were a few simple games written for it, mostly text based (what do you expect, it uses CP/M), but it's main use was of course as an office machine.
I recall it being a slow machine to use, even boot-up took about a minute. You had to be very careful with the hard disk because it didn't have auto-parking heads. After it was switched off you had to wait about a minute to switch it on again.

According to K.-L. Butte,there were 3 different models of it marking the 3 major development steps: The first incarnation wit 8085 and MP/M, the second with 8088 and Concurrent CP/M and the third with 8086 and Concurrent CP/M.