Apricot PC/Xi Motherboard. Apricot expansion slots visible on the top-right. RAM was bottom left. This unit has three expansion slots rather than the usual two.
The Xi (the name derives from the Roman numeral for 10 - The capacity of the hard disk) is the computer that established Apricot as a major player. The Xi was the hard-disk equipped version of the Apricot PC, which elevated it to a whole new level of value.
The Xi had charcoal coloured case plastics that stood out among the beige products of its competitors. A 20Mb version was also manufactured (in much smaller numbers) in a grey plastic.
The PC Xi was shipped with MS-DOS 2 as standard, and with a graphical 'Manager' application that could be configured to act an an application menu. A very primitive pre-cursor to the GUI's such as Windows and GEM that would soon appear.
There was an upgrade option for he Xi called the PC286 which replaced the motherboard with an 80286-based product. This is incredibly rare. I've never actually seen one.
CPU
Intel 8086 @ 4.77MHz
RAM
256Kb (Expandable to 768Kb via expansion cards)
Graphics
700x400 (80x25 text)
Storage
Single Sony 3.5" floppy disk with 315Kb or 720Kb capacity
10Mb Rodime RO352 Hard Disk
Internal Expansion
Optional 8087 Maths Co-processor
Optional 8089 IO Processor
2 x proprietary expansion slots (one used by HD Controller)
External Ports
Parallel printer port - Centronics
RS-232 serial port - DB-25
Apricot Monitor connector - proprietary design
Apricot Keyboard connector- proprietary design
Mouse port (on keyboard)
Expansion Cards
128Kb RAM expansion
256Kb RAM expansion
512Kb RAM expansion
Internal modem
16 colour display card (very rare)
Network Interface Card (10BASE-T Ethernet or Corvus Omninet)
Physical
Main unit dimensions: 42cm x 32cm x 10cm
Main unit weight: 6.4 Kg
Xi5
256Kb RAM, 5Mb Hard Disk, 315Kb single-sided floppy drive
Xi10
256Kb RAM, 10Mb Hard Disk, 720Kb double-sided floppy drive
Xi20
512Kb RAM, 20Mb Hard Disk, 720Kb double-sided floppy drive
Xi20s
1Mb Ram, 20Mb Hard Disk, 720Kb double-sided floppy drive
The Xi's hard disk, the Rodime R0352, was the first commercially available 3.5" form factor hard disk. Rodime themselves were based in Glenrothes, Scotland and manufactured the drives right next door to Apricot's main factory.