Qi 300

The Qi (pronounced 'key') was a new generation of desktop PC that introduced a range of new technologies designed to place Apricot in the 'premium' manufacturer market.   

IBM had introduced the 'Microchannel' architecture to try and recover its market dominance back by developing a new hardware standard to replace ISA - except this time, IBM would charge a licence fee to any manufacturer who wanted to use it.   As a market manipulation strategy, Microchannel failed dismally, but a (very) small number of manufacturers did build products using it and Apricot was one of the those (along with Olivetti, NCR, Research Machines, Tandy, and few specialist manufacturers).

As usual, Apricot introduced a radical new industrial design that made quite a splash.  Also as usual, the case proved somewhat impractical for people who wanted to put stuff on the top of their computer, or put the system unit down the side of their desk.

The Qi was launched in two versions

• Qi 300 using the Intel 386SX processor
• Qi 600 using the Intel 396DX processor

The Qi300 was released in 1988 and withdrawn in 1992, being replaced by the Qi 486 and XEN-LS.

All Qi 300 Models used the 'Jupiter' motherboard.

Qi Product Codes all began with the 'JP' Prefix

• Qi 310  (1Mb RAM, Floppy Drive only)
• Qi 330 (1Mb RAM, 47Mb Seagate LPS52S HD)
• Qi 350 (2Mb RAM, 47Mb Seagate LPS52S HD)

CPU : Intel 80386SX-16

RAM : 1Mb to 5Mb onboard

Bus Architecture  :MCA

Video : VGA Onboard

Storage

Hard disk : 30Mb to 50Mb

Floppy disk : Sony 3.5" Floppy drive

Networking

Ethernet onboard (Thick and BNC)

Internal Expansion

Four 16-bit MCA slots

Optional 80387SX maths coprocessor

Optional internal 3.5" 50Mb Irwin tape drive

External Ports

RS-232 Serial Port - DB25

Parallel Printer Port - Centronics

VGA Video Out

10BASE-T Ethernet socket

10BASE-2 Coax Ethernet socket

PS2 Mouse socket

PS2 Keyboard socket

Synchronous Comms port

Power Out (Molex style for peripherals)

The Qi included a unique security system that used two-factor authentication in the form of a handheld infra-red transmitter (The common description was 'looks like a pregnant credit-card') that could be registered to the user's login details, and had to be pointed at the computer and activated to confirm the user's identify.  Once the novelty had worn off, I never saw the thing actually used.