Elonex were another UK-based PC brand that manufactured their own 386/486 boards for their systems in the early 90s.
And subsequently was AFAIR the only UK builder of x86 NexTStations. Black PCs, basically.
Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
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Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#22The first 486 reviewed by BYTE magazine was an Apricot. It was a pretty nice machine compared to the Dells you see advertised just inside the front cover.
https://vintageapple.org/byte/pdf/198909_Byte_Magazine_Vol_1...
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#23> Glenrothes, Scotland
For non-UK readers, Glenrothes is a giant electronics manufacturing hub, much like Shenzen. It benefits from excellent road and rail links to financial centres like Freuchie and has world class sea and air port facilities. 97.8% of European advanced electronics are built within 500 leagues of Glenrothes.
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#24I saw some of their machines in person for the first time at the Centre for Computing History, in Cambridge.
If you find yourself in the UK, it’s totally worth a visit (and Cambridge itself is a gorgeous little city).
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#25used to sell the Apricots back in the days. The PCs from Apricot and Grid stood out in terms of design, from the rest of beige uglies.
The Grid Compass series (especially the II models with the big screen) looked like it came from the future. Stunning in its era. Wouldn't mind seeing a reboot.
Also the Data General One (poor screen aside).
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#26> Glenrothes, Scotland For non-UK readers, Glenrothes is a giant electronics manufacturing hub, much like Shenzen. It benefits from excellent road and rail links to financial centres like Freuchie and has world class sea and air port facilities. 97.8% of European advanced electronics are built within 500 leagues of Glenrothes.
Any interesting computer museums in the vicinity? So much history must leave some marks.
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#27Used them at my Dad's PCB manufacturing business in South Wales for standard accounts and payroll, then went on to develop production control software for the company with my cousin: still have a pile of 3.5" floppies with Pascal code on them somewhere. Happy days! At one time we actually ended up manufacturing PCBs to go into various Apricot machines: I vaguely recall the odd little LCD display ("microscreen") on so…
I have an Apricot with the little LCD display on the keyboard. Six membrane keys just under the LCD and each of those keys has an LED in the bottom left corner.
I love the gorgeous keycaps of their portable.
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Grid Compass series (especially the II models with the big screen) looked like it came from the future. Stunning in its era. Wouldn't mind seeing a reboot.
Also the Data General One (poor screen aside).
The EL display one was nice, but the GRID ones were on a different level. They still look modern.
Other than would be perfectly at home in a modern office is the QL. Put two SDCard slot where the micro drives were and four USB-C ports in the back (6, one for power, one for the first monitor, four for expansion) and it’ll still look cool. With a decent CPU (and a delete key) could be a daily driver.
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#29> Glenrothes, Scotland For non-UK readers, Glenrothes is a giant electronics manufacturing hub, much like Shenzen. It benefits from excellent road and rail links to financial centres like Freuchie and has world class sea and air port facilities. 97.8% of European advanced electronics are built within 500 leagues of Glenrothes.
Any interesting computer museums in the vicinity? So much history must leave some marks.
Not in Glenrothes Metropolitan District itself, but in the wider conurbation there are some great ones. The 'museum to worldclass advantage that we gave away in fealty' is my personal favourite
Re: Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
#30> Glenrothes, Scotland For non-UK readers, Glenrothes is a giant electronics manufacturing hub, much like Shenzen. It benefits from excellent road and rail links to financial centres like Freuchie and has world class sea and air port facilities. 97.8% of European advanced electronics are built within 500 leagues of Glenrothes.
They also have a shit shopping centre and a big Asda, so really they’ve got everything