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1000 Series
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The Alpha Micro 1000 was a line of systems based on the 68000 microprocessor. According to customer requests, each system could be configured from a single user microcomputer with 128 KB of RAM, up to a 60-users system with 3 MB of RAM and 2.4 GB of disk storage.
The operating system of the 1000 series was AMOS, a multi-user, multi-tasking and timesharing system allowing the user to easily add terminals and printers to the current configuration. Several programming languages were available to build AMOS compatible applications: BASIC, PASCAL, LISP, ASSEMBLER, FORTRAN and COBOL.
Alpha Micro offered innovative hardware solutions and high technology firsts provided by a third company called Macrotech:
- a 1 MB RAM Board
- an intelligent I/O board using DMA
- the only 6MB piggyback board available
- etc...
The system used a standard VHS Video Tape Recorder for back-ups, and most software updates from Alpha Micro and other software houses were supplied in this form.
In the UK this caused a few problems as you had to obtain NTSC-compatible players.
The Alpha Micro company still exists. You can find the latest info on the Amos and Alpha micro systems here.
Thanks to Joe for additional pictures and information
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