还记得老领导在踌躇满志的时候，月下对酌，很兴奋的描绘到，多少年以后，我们一定要建立一个博物馆，在介绍中心的发展史时，首先要放上在局里使用的第一台计算机，介绍内容是当然是的第一个计组办开发的供全局使用用上计算机的的工资打印程序。浮想联翩....
看到第一台用了天价购买的计算机，我很兴奋，这比在上学的时候在北阁使用的6912机强多了，至少不用拿着纸带胶带在上面一点一点打孔的编程序了。当时的领导很重视，尤其是廖公（大家都这么称呼）诺大的岁数，带着花镜，利用每天深夜到机房用这台计算机。我记得很清楚，一共买了2台victor 9000, 不知道是不是用外汇？ 当时的领导决定成立两个小组，一个负责完成工资打印，一个负责完成人事管理。
记得是我和小林负责工资打印，那时候去了多次六所（甚至还去请教王选，当时王选很好见，总是穿着破军大衣，反复推销激光照排系统）。好容易能显示汉字，尽管很难看，但是不能驱动打印，打印机没有汉字库，当然可以屏打。我记得钻研了几天字库点阵，利用9针去打印16X15的汉字，汉字点阵要做对角线颠倒，处理很慢（因basic驱动）半夜里突发奇想，为什么不编程序先把点阵倒过来放在文件里？然后再读取打印？照做后速度很快，至少比打印机打印反应快。看着打印慢慢腾腾出来的大约400个工资条，还是比较兴奋的。现在看什么票据打印机等等都是现成的。方便得很。

Victor 9000 Sirius 1
Released: 1982 Price: US $4,995 (128K RAM) CPU: Intel 8088 @ 5 MHz RAM: 128K - 896K Display: 800 x 400 graphics   80 x 25 text Expansion: 4 internal slots (nonstandard) Ports: 2 serial, 1 parallel Storage: 2 internal 5 1/4-inch floppies OS: CP/M-86 on diskette   MS-DOS on diskette

 

1980 - Chuck Peddle leaves Commodore, forms Sirius Systems Technology , is named president.

1981 - Kidde, Inc. helps finance Sirius specifically to create the Victor 9000, which was designed in-part by Chuck Peddle.

1982 - Victor is selling two-thousand 9000s a month by the end of the year.

1983 - Struggling financially.

1984 - Bankrupt. Victor had over 50 branch offices in the US, with hope for 1000+ retailers by the end of year 1982.Peddle's company, Sirius Systems Technology, changed their name to Victor, primarily because of a merger with Victor Business Products, itself a subsidiary of the conglomerate Kidde, Inc., the chief investor in Sirius.
But Sirius/Victor had also lost the rights to use the "Sirius" name in US following a suit filed by Sirius Software, Inc, a manufacturer and distributer of games software.The Victor 9000 is sold in Europe as the Sirius 1, distributed by ACT. The system is basically the same, but it has a different case.
They both run either the CP/M-86 or MS-DOS operating system, but neither is IBM compatible - that is, software written specifically for the IBM PC probably will not run on the Victor. Additionally, the hardware specs, floppy drives, and expansion slots are dissimilar.

Peddle believed they could become third-largest computer company in world, behind IBM & DEC.Quite an optimistic outlook, but the Victor 9000 really was an excellent business machine, probably superior to the competition, mainly the IBM PC, in many ways.

 

 

 

 

On March 8, 1983, IBM announced the IBM XT. The XT is an extension of the IBM PC targeted at the business market.Many people in the industry feel that the XT was introduced to compete directly with the Victor 9000 hard disk system.Source: Victor dealer newsletter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Links ACT Sirius 1 Users Group (UK) old-computers.com Victor documents from bitsavers.org BYTE review of Victor (PDF) from www.commodore.ca