Pertec Advert - May 1979

Launched in the UK in May 1979, the Attaché was said by Practical Computing in its May 1979 issue to be "in a sense, Pertec's first microcomputer", in that unlike the company's previous offerings, which were based upon the Altair 8800 from 1975, this was essentially a new design.

Pertec was previously most well known as a disk drive company, but ended up taking over MITS - one of the companies it supplied - when MITS was put up for sale in 1977, only two years after the launch of its famous 8800.

Although the design of the Attaché had moved away from the earlier Altair models, it still shared its predecessor's Intel 8080 processor and S-100 bus, in this case offering ten slots.

It also shipped with 16K memory as well as a video interface, although a VDU was an optional extra.

With extras such as an additional 16K memory, plus the dual floppy disk unit, a monitor and a decent printer, Practical Computing reckoned that owners could put together "a neat and reasonably powerful Attaché system" for about £5,350^[1] - a hefty £41,600 in 2025 money.

Meanwhile, the Attaché's sole UK distributor - Moncoland - was offering an extensive and cheap range of business packages for only £30 each, meaning that it was possible to set up a complete order processing system - order entry, stock control, customer records and invoicing - for only £120, or about £860 now.