THE PCW

The history:

Everybody knows it: Alan Sugar is what we call a "newbie". He thinks market while everyone thinks technical (maybe that's what made Amstrad so successful during the 1984 crisis). And when Alan thinks product that is the result...

The PCW was born in Sugar's mind, somewhere above Asia, in a plane. In July 1984, during a flight between Japan and Hong Kong, Sugar asked Watkins for a piece of paper (which was actually a contract between Amstrad and Digital Research...) et drew a computer which symbolized Amstrad's philosophy. It was a box including a monitor, a floppy drive and a printer. The monitor was A4-shaped and the drive was beneath it. The printer (in order to spare one PSU) was included. The aim was clearly the word processing sector.

The PCW opened (202 Kb)

Well, word processor systems were at the time sold around £10,000 ! Sugar wanted his for less than £400... At the end of the flight, the future PCW was almost finished, and once in Hong Kong, plans were faxed to MEJ. Sugar's a fast guy... The title of the fax was "Confidential : new projects for 1985" and this is how Sugar wanted his machine according to D. Thomas :
- we don't need any sound or color
- consolidate electronics for interfacing printer with computer. This means maybe in our existing CPC 464 there is some additional electronics needed to make it centronics and in the centronics printer there is some electronics also. If we can delete this additional electronics we can save money
- it is obvious that only one power supply is needed for monitor fdd computer and printer
- although the drawing shows the unit with 2 fdd we only plan 1. The reason is that the actual word processor program will be in ROM on the main PCB and as the unit is only a word processor there will be no need for machine operating ROM like we have in the CPC.
- on the basis of this unit being a complete integrated unit you must disregard all industry standards of interface ie centronics etc. This is very important to clear your mind of all these things. It is obvious that as this unit is a complete item there is nothing more to plug on to it.
- consider custom ics and ula wherever possible
- CRT. As you can see from our drawing the CRT is shown vertically. This is an obvious good idea if the item is to be used as a wp as this configuration is most like a sheet of paper. However as you know we use a TV grade tube with green phosphor. As 80 column mode is needed we must consider what kind of tube we need. We can't go for a full high res tube as they are too expensive. But we can ask maker to make a half-way compromise to keep price down.

The fax asked to work fast so that they could discuss it within 2 weeks. The project, code-named Joyce (Sugar's secretary first name) had to be modified. The A4-shaped monitor was abandoned and the printer had to be separated from the computer due to overheat problems. The software couldn't fit in the ROM (thank God, it allowed the creation of other software) because of the internationalization issue. Even better, CP/M would be implemented offering a real value with its huge software library. The 128 Kb became 256 Kb.
MEJ and Locomotive Software were designated to realize this machine. Not only because they had successfully worked on the 464, but mainly because they had already worked on word processing systems. The name of the actual word processor program would be nicknamed after its creators : Locoscript. Amstrad wanted a name with Word and Star but there were too many legal issues. Just for the story, Locomotive Software preferred a sole payment instead of royalties. It was around £75,000. Having in mind that there were more than a million machines sold, Locoscript did only cost less than a pound per machine !

Amstrad advertising - 06/1985 (761 Kb)

The PCW was therefore Alan Sugar's machine (like, later on, the NC). And it was a major hit in Britain, and a big sale in other countries like Germany, France or Spain. Alan Sugar understood the market.

The following question was often asked : "but why a Z80 ?" Why not a 80286 ? The answer was slashing : "customer doesn't give a shit". Yes, the good old Z80 was the heart of the system... or shall we say the systems, because 8256 successors would use the same processor. And the Z80 was quite enough to do what the machine was intended to. Plus, it only cost a pound per processor while Intels would have cost ten times more.
But the real advantage of the machine was Locoscript. Let's compare with IBM. Let's take Wordstar or Textor. How many disks to install or simply load the software ? Well, Locoscript fit on only one. Richard Clayton was one of those for who a kilobyte is a kilobyte and there's no waste with him. From the beginning, it was meant to work in a dozen languages. Another advantage, the screen could display 32 lines of 90 characters. Way above the 25 lines of 80 characters of a PC. With a specially designed keyboard, it even had menus like a Macintosh.

As for the technical side, MEJ had a great fun. Free of any constraint, he was able to do a great job. The PCW motherboard only has 17 chips (8 being the 256 Kb of memory). All this thanks to ULA, a circuit replacing numerous chips and serving the Z80... Plus, the chips controlling the printer are on the PCB !
And the price ? Sugar announced it under £400. No need to say that people (some of them having worked on that kind of system which cost at the time around £10,000) were simply amazed...

Inner view of the PCW - here, a 8256 (346 Kb)

The machine :

What is incredible is that it really looks like an Amstrad. There's only one plug, and we're talking about plugging a monitor, a computer and a printer ! As always, the PSU is included in the monitor. It also hosts the floppy controller and the printer's ROM. So one button boots it all. The PCW differs from the CPC by not having any connector. But a second 1 Mb fdd may be added. It is gray (a little bit more professional) and the monitor is on a non-adjustable stand.

The strength of the PCW is that it is simple. Locoscript once loaded, the user is permanently assisted. The "virtual disk" (112 of the 256 Kb) allows to keep in the main memory documents that need to be constantly called, making them immediately available (avoiding I/O operations). Locoscript is a very powerful and easy tool. Well, its creators were kind of specialists of that area (go check Richard Clayton interview).
Including CP/M offered the PCW a huge software library with hits like dBase II, Wordstar or Multiplan.

Amstrad advertisement - 06/1987 (604 Kb)

The Revolution :

Word processing market was very rewarding. As Richard Clayton told us, a dedicated system was around £10,000 ! So imagine Amstrad with its £399 computer. Of course, it had to be a success. Especially in Britain where this machine is much more famous than here in France. Everybody at Amstrad still think that this machine was revolutionary..
Who could stood up against the PCW ? Great names like Wang or Xerox with machines that cost big money and required long and expensive learning stages. So, of course, when Amstrad enters the arena with a great and cheap machine with great and cheap software, it could only be a revolution. Plus, no stages required... The manual's enough !
Philips tried with its Videowriter to compete with the PCW. More compact , the machine was not the expected success.

- The elements :

The keyboard:

PCW 8256 and 9512 keyboards (108 and 98.2 Kb)
Numeric pad close up (49.6 Kb)

The Printer:

This is a tour de force. There's only one cable... Simply amazing !
The printer is a dot-matrix printer. A little bit slow (from 20 cps up to 90). Listing paper can be used. The paper must not be too thick (no envelope for example). The cable is rather short, forcing the printer to stand next to the monitor.
But it's still a good quality printer. It offers several character types.

The motherboard:

As always, simple and well built. The ULA can be seen on the center of it, and on the right the RAM modules.

PCW 8256 motherboard (250 Kb)

BACK

(c) Charles da Silva - 2003

Sources : David Thomas "Alan Sugar"
François Quentin "Ces ordinateurs sont dangeureux"
William Poël, Richard Clayton
Amstrad Magazine #4 (11/85)
Tilt HS #4 June 87