![]() ![]() ![]() In Australia, Dick Smith Electronics marketed the Advance 86 as the Challenger, pricing the Model A configuration at just under A$1,000, with the complete Model B configuration priced at a total of just under A$3,000. A year of on-site service was included in the price of the Model B, this being regarded as "worth several hundred pounds" and superior to the support for any other contemporary microcomputer with the exception of the DEC Rainbow. After initial orders had been satisfied, the system was also to be marketed by Ferranti and sold by dealers. The machine was manufactured by Ferranti, nine of whose ULA chips had been used to minimise the component count on the main system board, and sold "exclusively" through high street retailer WHSmith, at least initially. ![]() In addition to the computer itself, a separate display needed to be purchased. The Advance 86 eventually became available in 1984, with broadly similar pricing, but was instead offered with the Perfect productivity suite. Initial pricing was estimated at £350 excluding VAT for the lower-specification Model A, positioned as a competitor to the BBC Micro and Commodore 64, with a Model B system projected to cost £1,200 excluding VAT, bundled with WordStar, Mailmerge and CalcStar. ![]() History īoth models of the Advance 86 were initially announced in 1983, after a development period of a reported one-and-a-half years, with a launch reportedly scheduled for September 1983. The core system employed the Intel 8086 processor, aiming for a level of compatibility with the IBM PC, and 128 KB of RAM, expandable to 256 RAM in the system unit and to a total of 768 KB utilising the expansion unit. Through the addition of the expansion unit, the Model A could therefore be upgraded to the Model B. An upgraded model, the Model B (or Advance 86B), augmented the Model A with an expansion unit providing dual floppy disk drives and was intended to appeal to business users. The base model, the Model A (or Advance 86A), featuring a system unit and keyboard, was specified and priced to appeal to the home market, relying on cassette-based storage. The Advance 86 was a microcomputer developed by Advance Technology UK in the United Kingdom, available in two models. ![]()
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