It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the start of the age of a computer on every desk, it was the end of the age of the homebrew garage PC. It was the era of tech startups. It was the era of corporate greed. In short, It was the chaotic environment that follows any new explosive technological advancement.
When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs of Apple computer fame debuted the Apple II on April 16, 1977[1] they transformed the unwieldly big metal box of circuit boards that had previously been the sole domain of the hobbyist and electrical engineer into a sleek, elegant desktop box within the reach of the common consumer. The computer enthusiast had become the computer user.
As the 1980s dawned, IBM was seeing a decline in its business minicomputer sales[2]. However, it took IBM almost four years to respond as the impact of the Apple II’s release began to resonate throughout the industry, even after Tandy and Commodore had also released microcomputers. IBM released its first microcomputer, the-PC 5150-in 1981[3]. While IBM PCs and clones are often now grouped as either XT or AT class machines, the XT and AT monikers were originally used by IBM to refer to the second (IBM 5160) and fourth (IBM 5170) models in their personal computer line[4][5]. The two classes also use radically different keyboard protocols which can be a useful distinction.
Both Acer (originally founded as Multitech in 1976)[6] and Franklin Electronic Publishers (originally founded as Franklin Computer Corporation in 1981)[7] were also interested in getting a piece of the fast growing microcomputer market, but they had very different business strategies. One was eventually sued out of the home PC market by Apple and the other continued to grow and still produces a wide range of computers today.
Attack of the Clones
Some of the first products that both Multitech and Franklin produced were Apple computer clones. While Multitech had a solid foundation as a distributor and consultant for electronics components and microprocessors, Franklin’s very first product to market was the ACE 100-an almost exact clone of the Apple II. Franklin’s apparent cavalier attitude towards copying other companies’ products would soon come back to bite them in a big way.
Both Acer and Franklin enjoyed successful sales of their Apple clones and other products until Apple sued Franklin for copyright violation for almost exactly duplicating Apple’s ROM and operating system code in their machines. After a prolonged legal battle Apple won and forced Franklin and most other Apple clones off store shelves by the end of the 1980s[8]. In addition, the lawsuit forced Franklin into bankruptcy which eventually led to them exiting the desktop computer market completely, changing their name to Franklin Electronic Publishers and refocusing onto handheld devices such as dictionaries, spell checkers and electronic books.
Soon after in 1984 IBM also sued several other computer manufacturers including Eagle and Corona for similar copyright claims related to copying the IBM BIOS[16]. All of these legal actions did force clone designers to create their own “clean-room engineered” and legally distinct, yet still mostly IBM hardware compatible BIOSs in order to prevent a similar copyright claim. A BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is usually a chip on the computer’s motherboard containing firmware which initially boots a computer and tells it where to find the installed operating system.
Black and White
I’ve always been more interested in IBM PCs than Apple computers. Over the past several years I’ve been able to acquire two related IBM PC clones which also used clones of the Intel 8088 CPU, the Acer/Multitech 500+ II and the Franklin PC-8000. While not exactly the same models in their respective product lines, their similarities vastly outweigh their differences.
The Acer 500+ II was a later revision (circa 1990)[12] of the Multitech Popular 500 released earlier in 1985[9]. Multitech officially changed their name to Acer for the U.S. market on April 29th, 1987[10]. The Franklin PC-8000 was released in 1986[13] and was an almost exact clone of the Popular 500. Since they’re different revisions of an 8088 PC there are significant differences to the circuit board layouts, but the overall architecture and build of the machines is close enough for a deep dive comparison. Only a limited amount of promotional material for both machines is available online these days [10][14].
From first glance, the similarities between the two machines is obvious. From the case dimensions to the same five horizontal accent lines in the front fascia design. The first two photos show the Acer 500+ II and the FranklinPC-8000, while the third photo shows the back of an actual Multitech Popular 500 and its similarity to the Franklin[11]. The Franklin originally did have a matching power supply, but mine had died prior to its arrival so I replaced it with a modern one.
The original IBM PC 5150 was a beast. At 19.5 inches wide, 5 inches high, 16 inches deep and a whopping 28 pounds it called for a large sturdy desk, especially if you planned on resting a large heavy CRT monitor on top of it as well. In order to fit all of that hardware into a more manageable size, Acer basically split the motherboard in half and stacked the two halves on top of each other using a riser or backplane card. This riser just provided the ISA bus and a connection to the power supply, but had no logic or processing power of it’s own.
In the photos, you can see several interesting differences between the Acer and Franklin riser cards. They both have four externally accessible 8-bit ISA slots, but while Acer added a plastic card guide and space on the top of the riser for a full fifth ISA slot, the Franklin cut costs by not including the plastic card guide and only providing enough circuit board for a male ISA card connector.
This compact desktop design provided just enough space for two 5.25″ half height floppy or hard drives and a very slim but long power supply. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the original Franklin power supply, but the Acer seems to be of good quality, with no RIFA capacitors and properly rated components. When I initially received the Acer, it would not power up due to a shorted hard drive controller board. The power supply smartly protected the other parts of the computer when it detected the damaged peripheral card.
The Franklin PC-8000 as well as the Multitech Popular 500 base models came with two 5.25″ half height 360k floppy disk drives. My Acer 500+ II appeared to have been upgraded with a 5.25″ half height, 20 megabyte (not gigabyte!) hard drive possibly made by Computer Memories, Inc. and distributed by Sigma Technologies. Amazingly, after replacing the faulty hard drive controller card, it fired right up and booted into a DOS menu system! Since the low-level formatting on these early MFM hard drives is often specific to each controller, it is unlikely the data on it would have been recoverable if an exact replacement card had not been able to be located.
Finding intact data on a 35 year old hard drive is a rare occurrence. It’s like finding a time capsule with a snapshot of someone’s daily life. This particular computer was last used by a property appraisers office in Atlanta, GA in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It contained a variety of office software including the PFS First Choice office suite (a document, database, spreadsheet, graphing and reporting suite similar to Microsoft Works), the Marshall and Swift Commercial Estimator program (c.1988), Perfect Forms (from Expert Software), Capitalization Rate software with copy protection which checks if the original software diskette is in the drive before starting, Lotus 123, PFS Professional Write, VSafe antivirus TSR software and even Netware, which implies this computer was even connected to an early IPX-based local network in the office that used it. There was, of course, also a large amount of private financial and business data which was securely deleted once the productivity software itself had been safely backed up.
Neither of these early microcomputers would of any use without their “brains”-their Intel 8088-based CPUs and all of the other circuitry which allows them to communicate with their other components and the outside world. Ideally I would have loved to compare the Franklin PC-8000, or it’s earlier sibling the PC-6000, with an original Multitech Popular 500. However, I feel like I’m at least comparing apples to pears…if not apples to apples here.
The last photo below compares the cards from the Franklin (on the left) with the cards from the Acer (on the right). Both computers came with a CPU card (bottom) and a multi-input/output card (middle). I’ll come back to the top cards momentarily. The Franklin CPU card uses a genuine Intel 8088 but does not appear to have any space to upgrade with an 8087 math coprocessor. It also only has 512k onboard RAM. The Acer has a newer, more advanced NEC V20 manufactured by Sony. The NEC V20 is designed to be 100% compatible with the Intel 8088 but is much faster and has some additional software instructions available[15]. The Acer CPU card appears to have space for a math coprocessor. It also has a full 640k of onboard RAM.
Both the Franklin and Acer I/O cards provide basic communications functions like serial, parallel and game ports. They both also have battery backed real-time clocks, although the Franklin’s RTC chip was not installed when I received it.
The top Franklin card is a fairly basic CGA-compatible video card with both 9-pin RGB and color or monochrome composite outputs. Based on the photo of the Popular 500 above, the Multitech appears to have had an almost identical CGA card. The Acer 500+ II however, has its video functionality integrated into its multi-I/O card. Both of these CGA implementations don’t seem to be quite 100% compatible with the IBM standard. I’ve noticed palette differences in some software programs. The small top card on the right is a Western Digital WD1002A-WX1 MFM hard drive controller. Finally, as a helpful touch, Acer includes a diagram and chart of all the jumper settings for each card affixed securely to the inside of the computers’ cover.
It’s Just Business…or is it?
Are these two computers groundbreaking, unique or powerful? Not at all. But the story behind them is a classic story of hope, hard work, greed and punishment. Many future computer manufacturers would take inspiration from Acer’s efforts to make a PC more portable and desktop friendly. While Franklin’s lackluster business strategies have relegated it to an electronic book market of diminishing returns in the age of the powerful and ubiquitous smartphone. As of this writing, even their website-https://www.franklin.com-appears to be little more than a hollow shell, published using Microsoft Word, entitled “Temporarily Under Renovation.”
Retro computing isn’t just about playing games and trying to keep perfectly good hardware from ending up in a landfill. A history of computers is a history of people, of us, and those who forget history…well, we know what happens to them.
Sources
[1] Wikipedia contributors. (2024b, March 16). Apple Inc. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.
[2] Wikipedia contributors. (2024a, March 3). IBM Personal Computer. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer
[3] Wikipedia contributors. (2024c, March 3). IBM Personal Computer. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer
[4] Wikipedia contributors. (2024b, February 24). IBM Personal Computer XT. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer_XT
[5] Wikipedia contributors. (2024a, January 23). IBM Personal Computer AT. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer_AT
[6] Wikipedia contributors. (2024, March 15). Acer Inc. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_Inc.
[7] Wikipedia contributors. (2023, December 8). Franklin Electronic Publishers. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Electronic_Publishers
[8] Wikipedia contributors. (2024b, February 13). Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Franklin_Computer_Corp.
[9] Acer Group/Multitech Electronics Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.). (2020, May 21). Classic Tech. https://classictech.wordpress.com/computer-companies/acer-groupmultitech-electronics-inc-sunnyvale-calif/
[11] https://forum.classic-computing.de/forum/index.php?thread/17901-heute-so-vorm-sperrm%C3%BCller-geretet/
[12] Personal Computing. (1990). United States: Personal Computing Magazine.
[13] InfoWorld. (n.d.). Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=Uy8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA17&dq=franklin%20pc-8000&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q=franklin%20pc-8000&f=false
[14] https://www.rodneytatum.com/index.php/franklin/
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_V20
[16] Eagle-I.B.M. Settlement (By The New York Times). (1984, February 22). https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/22/business/eagle-ibm-settlement.html.