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8000

The Sanco 8000 series followed the 7000. Like its predecessor, it was actually conceived by the French company SFCE (Sanyo France - Calculatrices Electroniques) and manufactured by Logic Systems International Inc. (LSI), a small Japanese company which would later release some PC compatible systems.

Sanco name came from the summary of Sanyo (SFCE was a Sanyo calculators distributor) and Cofelec, a subsidiary of the Thomson co., which made the first Sanco 5000 computer.

Sanco 8000s were robust machines, based on the CP/M Operating System and intended for professional use. They were only sold along with business management software packages dedicated to each branch of industry, from the lawyer to the plumber. SFCE sold about 70% of the Sanco machines to French customers, the remaining machine were sold in various European countries.

The Sanco 8000 range was comprised of the following versions:
• 8001 Economical version with light mainboard and 2 x 400 KB FDD,
All the following version featured the normal mainboard which memory could be expanded up to 192 KB
• 8001 and 8102 with respectively one or two 400 KB FDD,
• 8003 Two 800 KB FDD,
• 8150 800 KB FDD + 5 MB HDD,
• 8160 Same as 8150 but 10 MB HDD.

Sanco in the UK and Zimbabwe, by Mike Hopkins
The Sancos 7000 and 8000 were also sold in the UK by Memory Computer. Their subisidiary in Zimbabwe sold the Memory 7000 range. There were sub-models, called the 7001 (2x5/25" floppy disks), the 7102 (2x8" floppies).
Many of the Zimbabwe sales were to accounting firms, and ran the Peachtree accounting software. Also to farms for farm accounting.