Codenamed Candyfloss, this computer was aimed to compete with the IBM PC-AT. It was a multipost system capable of controlling up to 16 stations.
Three versions were sold:
• Xen FD with 512 KB of RAM and 2 x 720 KB 3.5" FDD.
• Xen HD with 1 MB of RAM, 720 KB 3.5" or 1.2 MB 5.25" FDD. and 20 MB HDD.
• Xen WS (WorkStation) with 1 MB of RAM and no disk drives.
Some Xen systems used a large black external power supply unit weighing at least 2-3 kilos, others featured a built-in one.
Speed of processing, supposedly zero wait-state, was superior to that of the IBM-AT. The motherboard featured a hard disk controller but the graphics card was delivered separately.
Xen systems also shipped with MS-DOS 3.2, GW-Basic and Windows. They could also run Xenix O.S.!
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.).
Special thanks to C.G.Styles who donated us this computer !
Hi there my dad helped develop the zen,,,
My main point is that I still have a one off prototype of the zen case, it was is a clear one so you can see all the internal parts ðŸ‘ðŸ‘
Tuesday 14th December 2021
Matthew bennett (England )
NAME
Apricot Xen
MANUFACTURER
ACT
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
United Kingdom
YEAR
October 1985
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke keyboard, numeric keypad, 10 function keys and 6 dynamic function keys Small LCD screen (40 characters x 2 lines)
CPU
80286
SPEED
7,5 Mhz
RAM
512 KB or 1 MB depending models
ROM
Unknown
TEXT MODES
80 chars. x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
Monochrome (green or paper white) 800 x 400 dots Colour 640 x 350 dots
COLORS
Unknown
SOUND
Unknown
SIZE / WEIGHT
37 (W) x 37 (D) x 10 (H) cm (CPU)
I/O PORTS
Parallel, Serial, Video out, Apricot monitor output
BUILT IN MEDIA
One 3''1/2 disk-drive (sometimes 5''1/4) and 20Mb hard-disk
OS
MS-DOS 3.2, Windows, Xenix optional
POWER SUPPLY
External or internal power supply unit, depending models