website/content/museum/act-apricot-f2-f10.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
ACT Apricot F2 / F10	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1985	Intel 8086	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts emulators links docs related oc_id source Apricot F2 / F10 /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f2_1.jpg /companies/act ACT label value NAME Apricot F2 / F10 label value MANUFACTURER ACT label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1985 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE ''Activity'' graphical interface (Desktop, wordprocessor, drawing, communication and Basic) label value KEYBOARD infrared full-stroke keyboard with editing and numeric keypads, 92 keys, 8 function keys label value CPU Intel 8086 label value SPEED 4,77 Mhz label value RAM 512k, up to 768k label value ROM 32k, up to 64k label value TEXT MODES 80 x 25 label value GRAPHIC MODES 320 x 256 (16 colors), 640 x 200 (4 colors), 640 x 256 (4 colors) label value COLORS 16 label value SOUND Beeper label value I/O PORTS Serial port, parallel port, RGB video out, Composite video out, 2 x expansion slot (Apricot F series) label value BUILT IN MEDIA F2 : 2 x 3.5'' disk-drives, double-sided, 720k each\ F10 : 1 x disk-drive (720k) and a 10Mb hard-disk label value OS MS-DOS (Apricot customized) + Activity (graphical interface) label value POWER SUPPLY Internal PSU label value PERIPHERALS 10Mb hard-disk dir the F2, RF modulator photos adverts emulators links docs 487 title subtitle text image APRICOT F2 /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf2_system_1.jpg title subtitle text image THE F2 AND THE F10 The F10 is at the back and the F2 at the front. The front panels are slightly different. The famous infrared trackball is also pictured here. /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f2-f10_1.jpg title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT "Thank you boss !" The ad incite employees to ask their boss to buy these Apricot systems...clever. /media/museum/pubs/act_apricot-f2_pub_1.jpg 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/ /media/museum/docs/couvs/act_apricot-user-prompt_1.jpg [**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/ /media/museum/docs/couvs/act_apricot-user-prompt_2.jpg [**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) /museum/act-apricot-f1 /museum/act-apricot-pc /museum/act-apricot-portable /museum/act-apricot-xen /museum/act-apricot-xi 493 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230127144325/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=493 2023-01-27

Unlike the Apricot F1 which was a kind of bridge between the home-computing and the professional markets, the F2 and the F10 were clearly marketed as business machines.

They were quite similar to the F1, but included an extra expansion slot, more memory and larger storage capacity : two disk-drives for the F2 and one disk-drive and a 10MB hard-disk for the F10.

Like the F1, the F2 and F10 had an infra-red interface for the keyboard and the mouse/trackball (the same infra-red mouseball pointing device used with the Apricot Portable). This interesting feature was not very convenient because you had to ensure that there was no object blocking the signals between the keyboard/mouse and the computer, and you also had to power the keyboard with batteries! However, the systems originally shipped with a plastic light-pipe that could be connected between the keyboard and CPU so that obstacles would not block the signal.

The F2/F10 were quite similar in shape to the F1. The same narrow, very deep and stylish case. The F10 had the same disk front-panel as the F1 but a different arrangement of the LED indicators (power, caps, disk, stop), infra-red sensors and logo. The F2 had different shaped disk-drives but identical LEDs, logo and infra-red sensors as the F1.

The F2 and the F10 use an Apricot-modified version of MS-DOS, so they were not really IBM compatible.

They were provided with a nice graphical and iconized interface called Activity. Integrated were a desktop, and software including a wordprocessor, communication, painting and Basic. They were also sold with GEM Write, GEM Paint and the GEM desktop.

These systems were quite expensive and not really IBM PC compatible, so they were not a great success, even in the UK, their native country. Initially, there were not even compatible with the F1. A new ROM had to be developed for the F1 !