A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Episode: The new compact 1.5MB standalone computer

Equinox UK appeared to get its start as a reseller of Parasitic Engineering of California's Equinox 100 micro, at least to the extent that the UK company and the original micro shared the same logo. ...

Why have a seperate microprocessor, VDU, discs and interfaces?

Compucorp Limited was the UK offshoot of Compucorp Inc, a California-based calculator manufacturer which was a division of Computer Design Corporation, a company which itself was a spin-out from Wyle...

Transam: The Exciting New Triton Personal Computer

From the days when cases for delicate electronics were an optional extra comes this advert for the Transam Triton - a British-built, Intel 8080A-based kit computer that was first released in December...

A 16-bit and an 8-bit micro all in the same compact unit

LSI, which sometimes made the claim to be the UK's biggest micro manufacturer, is back with an update to its System M-Three - a machine which was also popular as an OEM model, showing up as the British...

If you prefer the better things in life then you're going to like the new Micro 8

Micro 8 Ltd, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, appears to be a company set up specifically to sell the micro of the same name. Except that it's not Micro 8's micro, but was actually built by Fujitsu - and later...

Giantkiller: System 10

Millbank's System 10 was launched towards the end of 1980 and was still being sold into 1985. For most of that time though the company seemed to be flying under the radar, with just the odd advert now...

McCombo stars in any system

The McCombo microcomputer from Zytec International Products Limited is yet another Z80 CP/M 2.2 system, and like many of these, neither the company nor the computer itself seems to have left any trace....

The Hawk has hatched!

Hawk Computers had been around since at least 1978 but seemed to have been fairly invisible, with this being one of only a few adverts appearing in PRAC towards the end of 1982. The company appeared...

You can keep your 8-bits - with the new 16-bit TeleVideo family

From the company which over its lifetime sold millions of terminals comes a range of 16-bit micros that look somewhat like, er, terminals. That wasn't really a coincidence as Richard DuBridge, executive...

The 16-bit micro with 8-bit compatibility

Zenith Data Systems - the company formed after Zenith Radio Corporation had bought the Heath company from Schlumberger in early 1980 - is back with a couple of "16-bit" micros - the Z-120 and the Z-110....

The office information centre

Tandy had announced its "bigger brother" follow-up to the 1977 Model I at the end of 1979, but wasn't initially expecting to ship until April of the following year, whilst as this advert shows the machine...

Drop us a line... and we'll drop you a Panther

First released a few months before this advert, towards the end of 1981, the Panther micro - from Cyber Electronics - is back with an updated advert which this time doesn't feature an all-green screen....

Introducing the KD 700 - the most advanced microcomputer available today

It's perhaps something of a stretch to claim that yet another Z80, CP/M system was the most advanced available, but here it is, apparently: the Karadawn KD 700, first launched towards the end of 1981....

Now, Zilog introduces the generation-ahead microcomputer

It sometimes seems odd that CPU manufacturers were building their own micros, but there was precedent, with MOS Technology having to introduce the KIM-1 single-board computer in order to demonstrate its...

CompuStar: Tough to outgrow

Here's a nice advert for InterTec's CompuStar, which makes it look like the terminal-looking thing in the foreground is the most important part of the system. In this case, it was, sort of, which was...