Future Advert - May 1984

Future Computers Limited had been created in 1983 as a result of venture-capital funding from MGM/APA, and additional funding from BTG - the British Technology Group. Each had apparently invested £400,000^[1] - that's about £1,585,400 in 2024. Along with other grants, Future's total investment was said to be around £1.3 million^[2] - about £3 million now.

Its FX20 machine was quite hi-spec for the time, and was built to specifically take on Chuck Peddle's Sirius 1, as well as IBM's 5150 - the original IBM PC. Future's managing director Brian Jackson said of the FX20 that it was designed to be "IBM think alike, but not look alike"^[3].

It was also one of the slimmest machines of its day, as it used the relatively-new half-height 5¼" floppy disk drives. Unusually, these were attached to the lid, which made access to the motherboard underneath easier.

The FX20 used the same processor as the Sirius and IBM - Intel's 8088, the 8-bit-memory-bus version of the 8086, although it was running at 8MHz, which was 60% faster than the 5150 and the Sirius's 5MHz clock speed. It also had an empty slot for an 8087 maths co-processor, which would make it faster yet in maths-heavy operations.

It shipped with networking built in, however this wasn't Ethernet but was of its own design, based on - according to Personal Computer World - a "Ring-type network", which required the specialist CP/NET operating system to work.

Peter Rodwell concluded in his review in October 1983's Personal Computer World that

"Its pricing and the built-in networking capability make the FX20 one of the most competitive micros around and - with the single reservation about doing its own thing, network-wise - Future Computers seems to be far more in tune with the micro world than many other manufacturers now attacking this market"^[4].

It retailed for a very competitive £1,875 - that's about £7,100 in 2024. The company planned to follow up with an OEM version - the FX21, and a hard-disk version, the FX30.