Little is known about this computer. Help welcomed ! Silex means flint in french, a stone mainly used in prehistoric times as tools and weapons.
The SILEX is a professional computer released in 1979 by the french company Leanord. It was conceived from a modified Apple II board.
It has a professional keyboard with function keypad and numeric keypad. The display is built-in the system. It is monochrome but has graphic capabilities (280 x 192) and can display 40 x 24 characters (80 x 24 in option). To the right of the display is a 5.25'' disk-drive built-in the case (143 KB). Additional storage media will be available later (high density disk drives and hard disks).
Different languages were available : extended BASIC (in english and in french!), PASCAL, "evoluated disk operating system"...
The fact that there is so little information about the Silex, makes us believe that it had a very short life, at least under this name, since SIL'Z systems from the same company seem to be an evolution of the Silex. SIL'Z systems had some success, particularly in french administrations and schools.
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
Hi, I ''ve worked in the plant (town :Haubourdin), and the Sil''z was an Apple 2 machine with some enhancements (graphics) in a hard case (aluminium), and with a better power supply, built in video CRT and strong keyboard It was possible to connect 8" drives (I''ve writted routines for that, in 6502 assembly and Pascal UCSD On the picture, on the right,it''s a 5.25" disk-drive
Saturday 9th April 2011
Dan (France)
Looking at the random systems I first fell into the "Darlay DY 80" page and now in this "Leanord Silex", both Made in France. Seems to me that the French are as good making computers as they are making cars. LoL. :D
