Applix 1616

The Applix 1616 was a kit computer with a Motorola 68000 CPU, produced by a small company called Applix in Sydney, Australia, from 1986 to the early 1990s. It ran a custom multitasking multiuser operating system that was resident in ROM. A version of Minix was also ported to the 1616, as was the MGR Window System. Andrew Morton, designer of the 1616 and one of the founders of Applix, later became the maintainer of the 2.6 version of the Linux kernel.

Paul Berger and Andrew Morton formed the Australian company Applix Pty. Ltd. in approximately 1984 to sell a Z80 card they had developed for the Apple IIc that allowed it to run CP/M. This product was not a commercial success, but Paul later proposed they develop a Motorola 68000-based personal computer for sale in kit form.

The project was presented to Jon Fairall, then editor of the Australia and New Zealand electronics magazine Electronics Today International, and in December 1986, the first of four construction articles was published as "Project 1616", with the series concluding in June 1987. In October and November 1987, a disk controller card was also published as "Project 1617".

Over the next decade, about 400 1616s were sold.

Applix Pty. Ltd., was in no way related to the North American company of the same name that produced Applixware.

The main board contains:

The main board also had four 80-pin expansion slots. The 1616 shared this backplane with a platform developed by Andrew Morton for Keno Computer Systems, allowing the 1616 to use expansion boards developed for the Keno Computer Systems platform (primarily the 34010 graphics coprocessor), although the form-factor was different, which left the KCS cards sticking out of the top of the 1616 case!

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