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The Amstrad PC1512 was
Amstrad Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstra ...
's mostly
IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
-compatible computer system, first manufactured in 1986. It was later succeeded by the PC1640.


Features

Whereas IBM's PC (and almost all PC compatibles) had a power supply in a corner of the main case, the PC1512's power supply was integrated with that of its monitor. The monitor had sufficient venting to cool itself by
convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convecti ...
, instead of needing a fan. The PC1512 was therefore quieter than other PCs. Rumours circulated that an Amstrad PC would overheat, and while existing owners would note that this did not happen, new buyers were discouraged. As a result, later models had a cooling fan integrated into the main case. Another example of rumour was the suggestion that there were issues with the 'unshielded' power supply in the monitor affecting an optional hard drive that could be installed at the back of the base unit and further that this would be solved by taping tin foil or aluminum foil over the back of the base unit or the bottom of the monitor to shield the hard drive. Amstrad licensed both
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...
3.2 and
Digital Research Digital Research, Inc. (DR or DRI) was a company created by Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit systems like MP/M, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS, Multiuser DOS, DOS Plus, DR DOS and G ...
DOS Plus DOS Plus (erroneously also known as DOS+) was the first operating system developed by Digital Research's OEM Support Group in Newbury, Berkshire, UK, first released in 1985. DOS Plus 1.0 was based on CP/M-86 Plus combined with the PCMODE e ...
, which was largely compatible with MS-DOS and included some features from
CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initially ...
and the ability to read CP/M disks. Only one of these operating systems could be used at a time. They also licensed the
GEM A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, an ...
windowing system In computing, a windowing system (or window system) is software that manages separately different parts of display screens. It is a type of graphical user interface (GUI) which implements the WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) paradigm fo ...
, which supported the customized CGA hardware of the 1512. The PC1512 was followed by the PC1640, which had 640 KB of RAM and an EGA-compatible graphics chipset (though only the ECD model could display all EGA modes). Either model shipped with one or two 5¼-inch floppy drives, and optionally a hard drive (either 10 or 20 MB). The PC1640 also allowed replacing the internal graphics adapter with a 8bit ISA VGA graphics expansion board, which made it more versatile than the PC1512. Both the PC1512 and the PC1640 could be upgraded with a
NEC V30 The NEC V20 is a microprocessor that was designed and produced by NEC. It is both pin compatible and object code compatible with the Intel 8088, with an instruction set architecture (ISA) similar to that of the Intel 80188 with some extension ...
CPU, that increased and added 80186 instruction set compatibilities, and by adding an
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
8087 The Intel 8087, announced in 1980, was the first x87 floating-point coprocessor for the 8086 line of microprocessors. The purpose of the 8087 was to speed up computations for floating-point arithmetic, such as addition, subtraction, multiplicati ...
mathematical coprocessor. Upgraded with the FPU, the PC1512 and PC1640 did outperform later PC architectures (i.e. 80286 w/o FPU) in numerical operations which was highly useful for CAD and numerical calculations. Lotus 1-2-3 and Matlab supported the 8087. A performance benchmarks as conducted with Checkit compares the different models and configurations of the PC1512 and PC1640, with that of a fast 80286. Amstrad also attempted to expand its market share by selling computers in the United States. In the US the PC1512 was marketed as the PC6400 and included a 20 MB hard drive and the RAM upgrade to 640 KB. The PC1512 was also sold as the Sinclair PC500.


Reception

The PC1512, and also its successor the PC1640, sold very well. Part of it was explained because the basis model (one floppy drive, no harddisk) launched for £499, which made it one of the first cheap PCs in Europe. Second, its design was compact and visually appealing. With the exception of the fan in the PC1640's ECD monitor, both the PC1512 and the PC1640 were silent. This was a significant difference compared to the quite noisy PCs sold at the time. Although the Amstrad PC1512 and PC1640 had to compete against faster AT-type architectures at the time of their release, they were sufficiently powerful to run office software popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including WordPerfect 5.1,
WordStar WordStar is a word processor application for microcomputers. It was published by MicroPro International and originally written for the CP/M-80 operating system, and later written also for MS-DOS and other 16-bit PC OSes. Rob Barnaby was the so ...
,
Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...
4 and 5 for DOS, the spreadsheet
Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...
,
Matlab MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementatio ...
, and the database program
dBase dBase (also stylized dBASE) was one of the first database management systems for microcomputers and the most successful in its day. The dBase system includes the core database engine, a query system, a forms engine, and a programming language ...
III+ as well as Ashton-Tate's Framework II integrated office suite. The PC1512 and PC1640 were shipped with Digital Research's
GEM A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, an ...
as a graphical shell, but could run also
Geoworks Ensemble GEOS (later renamed GeoWorks Ensemble, NewDeal Office, and Breadbox Ensemble) is a computer operating environment, graphical user interface (GUI), and suite of application software. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on DOS-based, IBM PC ...
(up to Version 2.1), and
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...
(up to Version 3.0, that did support a 'real mode'). The PC1512 significantly helped open up the European PC market to consumers as well as businesses, and Amstrad's advertising of the PC1512 was aimed at homes rather than offices. The 1512's influence was such that the UK PC magazine
PC Plus ''PC Plus'' was a computer magazine published monthly from 1986 until September 2012 in the UK by Future plc. The magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), contai ...
originally targeted itself at the "Amstrad PC 1512 and compatibles", since home ownership of other PCs at the time was rare. The PC1512 shipped with 512 KB of RAM; it could be upgraded to 640 KB of RAM with 16 pieces of 4164-120 Dynamic RAM chips (64KBx1 per chip) and setting a jumper. Video output was compatible with the CGA standard, with an extension allowing all 16 colours to be used in the 640×200 graphics mode. The
CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
of both the PC1512 and the later PC1640 was an 8 MHz
Intel 8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allow ...
, which was sufficient for playing ''
The Secret of Monkey Island ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fictional version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guyb ...
'', ''
Maniac Mansion ''Maniac Mansion'' is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been enslav ...
'' and ''
Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two games i ...
''. The power supply was located in the monitor, which made upgrading difficult. The input devices supplied with the machine were notable. The mouse was an Amstrad Mouse, which was incompatible with serial mice common at the time. It was supported by some games, including ''
Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...
'', but many DOS programs had problems with it. The keyboard sported an Atari-compatible
joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal con ...
port for digital joysticks. Joystick movements and buttons were mapped to unused keyboard codes, allowing the joystick to be used in many DOS games that were written for keyboard control. The series was somewhat unusual for the fact that it had a physical volume control on the internal speaker. This allowed the user to make the machine beep quietly, or silently, from boot time onwards. This innovation is still not present in most modern PCs: the legacy beeper is typically still a fixed-volume device.


Specifications

* Available as choice of one or two 360 KB 5¼-inch floppy disks drives or one floppy disk drive with a 10 or 20 MB hard disk drive. * Hard disk version, supplied with an extra floppy disk and manual backup and restore utilities * PC1512 CGA display with extra 640×200 16 colour mode. PC1640: CGA, EGA, Hercules mode, plus possibility to add an 8bit ISA VGA board. * Colour or monochrome monitors. Monochrome monitor displays CGA in greyscale, not compatible with more usual
Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...
mono display. * Motherboard includes RS232c serial and parallel port * Loudspeaker with volume control (
PC speaker A PC speaker is a loudspeaker built into some IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven (dynamic) speaker. More recent computers use a tiny moving-iron or pie ...
, not sound card) * Battery-backed real time clock and configuration RAM * Socket for
8087 The Intel 8087, announced in 1980, was the first x87 floating-point coprocessor for the 8086 line of microprocessors. The purpose of the 8087 was to speed up computations for floating-point arithmetic, such as addition, subtraction, multiplicati ...
math co-processor. * Connector for
light pen A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw on the screen in a similar way to a t ...
* Full size QWERTY keyboard with
Atari joystick port The Atari joystick port is a computer port used to connect various gaming controllers to game console and home computer systems in the 1970s to the 1990s. It was originally introduced on the Atari 2600 in 1977 and then used on the Atari 400 an ...
* Two button mouse with dedicated port on system unit * Microsoft compatible mouse driver * Three full-length PC/XT-bus ISA expansion slots – these were accessed through top and side panels with thumb-push locks meaning expansion cards could be added without use of a screwdriver.


Supplied software

Four disks were supplied with floppy models, five with hard drive models. *
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...
MS-DOS 3.2
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
* Digital Research GEM (Graphics Environment Manager) plus GEM Desktop * Digital Research GEM Paint * Digital Research DOS Plus (runs MS-DOS and CP/M-86 applications) * GEM-based Locomotive BASIC 2


Dimensions

* PC1512SD System Unit 372 W 284 D 135 H 6.05 kg * PC1512DD System Unit 372 W 284 D 135 H 7.75 kg * PC MM Monochrome monitor 350W 300 D 315H 7.43 kg * PC CM Colour Monitor 372W 365D 330H 11.6 kg


Accessories

;Printer Amstrad launched the Amstrad DMP3000 printer, which was an 80-character dot matrix printer with both IBM and Epson compatibility that boasted NLQ (Near Letter Quality) and could handle both A4 and fanfold paper. It connected to the computer via a parallel port. ;Modem Amstrad also launched the SM2400 modem, which was a quad-speed dial-up modem that boasted speeds of up to 2,400 baud. It was an internal ISA modem. It was encased in plastic and could fit into Amstrad PC1512 and PC1640.


References

{{reflist


External links


More information on the Amstrad PC1512
(includes image)
More information on the Amstrad PC1640
(includes image) Amstrad IBM PC compatibles Computer-related introductions in 1986