Yet another British company is following Amstrad Plc and bringing
out cheap IBM Personal Computer clones. Recently, Harlow-based
distributor Akhter entered the market, and now it is the turn of
Viglen Ltd. The VPC System Turbo range consists of four machines
with the low-end model, the VPC 10M, with switchable 8/4.77MHz V20
processor, 256Kb RAM, 360Kb floppy, parallel port and mono monitor
coming in at UKP499 excluding VAT. The VPC 100M uses the same
processor but features 640Kb RAM, two 360Kb floppies, two serial
and two parallel ports and a real time clock. It costs UKP639 while
the UKP869 VPC XT120M has a 20Mb hard disk, 1Mb RAM, one 360Kb
floppy, two serial and two parallel ports, and a clock. Completing
the range is the VPC AT which offers a switchable 8/6MHz 80286
processor, 20Mb hard disk, 1Mb RAM, expandable to 4.5Mb, 1.2Mb
floppy, mono graphics card and monitor, and Microsoft mouse. It
starts at UKP1,400 with a 40Mb version costing UKP1,800. All four
machines come with free Multisoft software, and two years on-site
maintenance, including 12 months parts and labour, from Atlantic
Computers' Lion Development Systems. They will be assembled at
Viglen's Hanwell, West London factory and will be targetted
primarily at the education and local authority markets where the
company has sold its own brand disk drives and credit card-sized
memory cards for some years.
