Amstrad

Amstrad is a British consumer electronics company that built (amongst other things) several popular microcomputer families.

CPC

Amstrad's original 8-bit home microcomputer range aimed to provide a complete package: a colour or monochrome CRT monitor supplied power to the computer, which had the keyboard and a cassette or 3" floppy disk drive built in.

• CPC-464
• CPC-664
• CPC-6128
• CPC-464+
• CPC-6128+

PCW

Building on the success of CPC home computers, the PCW (Personal Computer / Word-processor) family offered an affordable computer for office use. Initial models shipped with a 3" single-sided 180K floppy drive and a double-sided "flippable" boot disk. One side booted into Locomotive Software's LocoScript word-processor. The other side booted into CP/M-Plus (CP/M-80 3.0). Initial models shipped with a dedicated dot matrix printer and later models had a daisywheel printer that provided "typewriter quality" output but was rather loud in operation.

• PCW-8256
• PCW-8512
• PCW-9512
• PCW-9512+
• PCW-10

PC

Amstrad built IBM-compatible PCs including the wonderfully weird PC-1512, the popular PC-1640. The PC-2000 series saw a move to 3.5" disk drives and the introduction of models based on the 80286 and 80386 microprocessors. The PC-3000 series saw a move to more conventional PC construction: the power supply moved from the monitor to inside the system unit's sturdy metal case. Later series included i486 models, small form-factor PCs and even a model with a built in Sega Megadrive!