What are the really unusual or weird computers? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

1 Jul 2007

Hi,

...
 >....The earlier assertion that it was miles away
from an IBM PC
>just isn't true.... 
Oh, but it is....just take a look at the Apricot Technical Reference manual.

...
  Thinking about it more, my statement about peripherals
might be
stretching it. I don't *recall* any problems with 3rd party
peripherals like modems and whatnot.... 
Well, the Apricots had a bog standard RS232 connector and the printer 
interface was standard "Centronics" (though it used a female Centronics 
connector rather than a DB-25 as many other machines used).

Also, since the thing didn't have an ISA bus, any internal expansion options 
would be designed specifically for the "Apricot bus" and have the 
appropriate drivers....

...
 ....The F1 doesn't look like it has compatible
connectors for standard  IBM
...
 PC peripherals, but ISTR that the Xi *did* have ISA
slots.... 
No, the "F" series machines use the same "Apricot" expansion bus as
the 
earlier PC & Xi and the later Xen series.

The first Apricot machine to have an ISA bus inside was the "Xen-i", which 
was also Apricot's first (mostly) IBM compatible machine.

...
 ....The F1 wasn't intended to be expanded very
much.... 
That's because the "F" series machines were primarily intended to be
"home" 
machines.

  TTFN - Pete.