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In August 1978, first units of the "Advanced Basic Computer for the 1980s", in short ABC-80 left the Swedish Luxor factory.
A few months earlier, Luxor contracted with two other companies, Scandia Metric and Data Industrier AB (DIAB), to build the first totally Swedish computer. Scandia Metrics which had previous experience of computer based products designed the main board, DIAB manufactured the chips, while Luxor, one of the biggest TV set manufacturers, built the monitor, case and keyboard and assembled the whole system in its assembly plant of Motala (Sweden, at the northeast shore of Swedens second largest sea, Vättern).
Despite the fact that the technology behind the ABC 80 was very simple and technical features wasn't better than US competitors, the ABC80 was a quality machine and became a great success among early Swedish computer enthusiasts, who had been waiting for a long time a real local computer. More than 10.000 computers were sold within two years. For six years, the ABC80 and then its sequel the ABC800, were by far the most sold and used personal computers in Sweden, for home, hobby, and especially education.
Many schools in Sweden had ABC 80 or ABC 800 for the students. It was possible to connect together several ABC 80 thanks to a network called ABC NET.
In 1984, the ABC1600 and ABC9000, two Unix systems, were launched with the slogan "Who needs to be IBM compatible?"... They were the last Luxor computers produced.
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