The Victor 9000 / Sirius S1 was conceived by Chuck Peddle who also designed the first Commodore PETs. This machine was quite innovative and superior in many points to the original IBM PC. It met a certain success in Europe as the IBM PC was not yet available there, whereas the Sirius S1 (european name of the Victor 9000) was. ACT sold a lot of these systems in UK, and their first "homemade" computer, the Apricot PC, borrowed a lot to the Sirius S1. 
The Victor 9000 was perhaps best known for how it was able to achieve such high density on it's floppy disks. It used variable speed disk drives; there were 9 different speeds used. As the drive head moved outward the speed would increase. It was really neat to hear the speed change as the drive head moved.
The Victor 9000 could run with MS-DOS or CP/M 86. Many languages were available: Basic 86, C-Basic, Cobol, CIS-Cobol, Pascal, Fortran, PL1, PLM, etc.; as well as some software: Wordstar, Spellstar, Mailmerge, Multiplan, etc.
VICTOR一9000微型机是国内使用较多的一种IBM一PC兼容机，广泛地用于管理，实验数据处理等方面。为资源共享和外部设备共享，国内许多厂家生产了I-BM一Pc机到vlcTOR一9000机的通讯卡和IBM一PC机到APPLE一亚机的通讯卡。但VICToR一9000机与ApPLE一亚十之间的通讯还是尚未完善。
主要参数编辑本段回目录
| Released: | 1982 |
| Price: | US $4,995 (128K RAM) |
| CPU: | Intel 8088 @ 5 MHz |
| RAM: | 128K - 896K |
| Display: | 800 x 400 graphics |
| 80 x 25 text | |
| Expansion: | 4 internal slots (nonstandard) |
| Ports: | 2 serial, 1 parallel |
| Storage: | 2 internal 5 1/4-inch floppies |
| OS: | CP/M-86 on diskette |
| MS-DOS on diskette |
 |  |
| NAME | Victor 9000 / Sirius 1 |
| MANUFACTURER | Sirius Computer |
| TYPE | Professional Computer |
| ORIGIN | U.S.A. |
| YEAR | 1982 |
| BUILT IN LANGUAGE | None |
| KEYBOARD | Full-stroke keyboard with function keys, editing keypad and separated numeric keypad. 94 keys |
| CPU | Intel 8088 |
| SPEED | 4 MHz |
| RAM | 128 kb (up to 896 kb) |
| ROM | 16 KB |
| TEXT MODES | 80 x 25, 132 x 50 (matrix of 9 x 12 or 10 x 16) |
| GRAPHIC MODES | 800 x 400 dots |
| COLORS | monochrome |
| SOUND | built-in speaker |
| SIZE / WEIGHT | 38(W) x 33(D) x 18(h) cm. Weight: 14 Kg (including two F.D. drives) |
| I/O PORTS | Parallel / IEEE-488, two RS232 / V24 ports, four expansion slots |
| BUILT IN MEDIA | Two 5.25'' disk-drives, 612 kb each (or 1,2 Mb each as an option) Optional 10,6 Mb hard-disk |
| OS | CP/M 86, MS-DOS |
| POWER SUPPLY | PSU built-in |
| PRICE | 4421  (France, april 1983) - ?754 (U.K., 1983)10 MB hard disk and controler: $4495 128 KB memory board $800 384 KB memory board $2500 |
详解编辑本段回目录
"I am the Victor 9000, the number one choice in business computers." (MP3 sound sample)
Introduced at COMDEX 81, the Victor 9000 had its first shipment in spring of 1982. The powerful system is based on the Intel 8088 processor and features 128K bytes of main memory (expandable to 896K); floppy storage capacity of 1.2 megabytes on single-sided diskettes and 2.4 megabytes on double-sided diskettes; hard disk storage capacity of 10.6 megabytes (formatted) in either internal or external versions; an 80/132 column display screen with graphics-quality resolution of 800 x 400 pixels, and four input/output ports- two serial and two parallel (one internal).
Peddle's company, Sirius Systems Technology, changed their name to Victor, primarily because of a merger with Victor Business Products, itself a subsidiary of the conglomerate Kidde, Inc., the chief investor in Sirius.
But Sirius/Victor had also lost the rights to use the "Sirius" name in US following a suit filed by Sirius Software, Inc, a manufacturer and distributer of games software.
The Victor 9000 is sold in Europe as the Sirius 1, distributed by ACT. The system is basically the same, but it has a different case.
They both run either the CP/M-86 or MS-DOS operating system, but neither is IBM compatible - that is, software written specifically for the IBM PC probably will not run on the Victor. Additionally, the hardware specs, floppy drives, and expansion slots are dissimilar.
Peddle believed they could become third-largest computer company in world, behind IBM & DEC.
Quite an optimistic outlook, but the Victor 9000 really was an excellent business machine, probably superior to the competition, mainly the IBM PC, in many ways.
| On March 8, 1983, IBM announced the IBM XT. The XT is an extension of the IBM PC targeted at the business market. Many people in the industry feel that the XT was introduced to compete directly with the Victor 9000 hard disk system. Source: Victor dealer newsletter. |
参考文献编辑本段回目录
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=210
http://oldcomputers.net/victor9000.html
http://oldcomputers.net/victor9000.html
