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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.

    Apricot Xi

    Description

    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.

    Technical Specification

    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


    Models

    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


    Random Factoids

    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.


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