When NCR discontinued the Decision Mate V, they released the PC4.
This was more or less a 8088 based IBM PC/XT clone. It came in six variations: monochrome or colour screen, one or two 5.25" DS-DD floppy disk drive or a half-height 10 MB hard disk in place of the second floppy drive.
It did support the IBM ISA bus, but also had an NCR proprietary expansion bus for memory and some adapters to integrate with other NCR proprietary banking and retail products. It ran a separately licensed version of MS-DOS called NCRDOS.
The later versions were called PC4/i, for (really) IBM compatible.
The PC4 won the German International Forum Design award, in 1985.
_______________________
Jon Andre Finnerud from Norway writes us:
As the local bank in my town were replacing their old computer systems, a lot of PC4's were just thrown away. I got mine from a friend working there. It was actually a PC4i, It had an internal 12" graphics display, capable of hi-res CGA-graphics. In adittion it had a standard 5,25" floppydrive and a 10MB Harddisk. The sound was the traditional beeper, with a knob in the front to adjust the volume(!) The main processor was a 8086-16bit running at 4Mhz, and i also believe i had a Z80 processor (after it failed i studied the mainboard firmly). My friend at the bank also told me that they where running CP/M on them while in use at the bank. (i never tested it myself) Sadly the internal display went dead, and since it was impossible to get a replacement, i started fiddling with the idea of somehow replace the internal display with an old IBM 12" VGA monitor i had laying. But it never happened, and i somehow managet to throw it in the garbage :-( Now i regret it, and have even been looking around for a "new" one.
Siva Balendran clarifies:
I used to work for NCR in London (UK); it was called PC4i.
The reason Jon Andre Finnerud could not connect the IBM monitor was it used a hi-res CGA-graphics card developed by NCR.
I could remember it was used there up until 2000, for running some applications.
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 Chad Stellrecht who donated us this computer !
This computer was my favorite garage sale find of 1995. It even came with it''s own version of DOS, NCR-DOS, and some Peachtree productivity software. But my primary use for this machine was vintage PC gaming. This worked especially well after I installed a used hard card into an available expansion slot. Unfortunately Hurricane Rita tore the roof off the garage where it was stored a decade later, and this machine did not survive being flooded.
My first computer was an NCR PC4. I was in a mom/pop store of some sort. Behind the counter sat the PC4. It was obvious they were getting rid of it. I offered $250. They gave it to me. It had one floppy and an aftermarket 30 MB hard drive. Obsolete even then (1990), but absolutely reliable and great for the college student that I was at the time.
Thursday 17th December 2020
Dave (United States)
I am currently in process of restoring one of this system, have already installed a new vga monitor inside the case but the motherboard have a DB15 connector for the power supply i need the pinout of this connector or the shematics.
Thursday 22nd September 2016
Sebastian Blanco (uruguay)
NAME
PC4
MANUFACTURER
NCR
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
Germany
YEAR
1985
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None - NCR GW-Basic on diskette
KEYBOARD
Full stroke 95 keys with cursor keys, numeric keypad and functions keys
CPU
Intel 8088-2 (16 bit)
SPEED
4,77 Mhz
CO-PROCESSOR
Socket for a 8087 math coprocessor
RAM
128 KB expandable to 640KB on the main processor board.
VRAM
32 KB
ROM
16 KB
TEXT MODES
40 or 80 columns x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
640 x 400 (Colour version), 720 x 348 (Monochrome version, Hercules Graphics emulation)
COLORS
16 colours or grey shades
SOUND
Built-in speaker. 1 channel
SIZE / WEIGHT
46 W) x 36 (D) x 38 (H) / 23 kg
I/O PORTS
8 x ISA compatible slots, Serial and Parallel ports
BUILT IN MEDIA
6 configurations, typicaly one 5.25'' 360 KB disk drive and one 10 MB hard-disk
OS
NCR-DOS operating system, MS-DOS
POWER SUPPLY
Built-in PSU
PERIPHERALS
Any 8-bit PC-compatible extension cards, and peripherals