Laying down a challenge to Amstrad Plc in the cut-throat UK Personalike market, UKP10m-a-year Akhter Group Plc of Harlow, Essex has introduced a comparably-priced Personalike with the added option of 720Kb 3.5 floppies at the same price as the 360Kb 5.25 versions. The Akhter PC, built by the company at its Harlow plant, comes in at UKP500 with one 360Kb or 720Kb floppy, 256Kb memory, monochrome monitor, Hercules-compatible graphics board, six spare slots and serial and parallel ports. The Amstrad offers 512Kb in the base model and uses an 8MHz 8086; the chip in the Akhter is an 8MHz 8088 that is switchable down to 4,77MHz. The XT version at UKP1,000 includes 512Kb processor, 360Kb or 720Kb floppy, 20Mb hard disk, 640 by 200 RGB monitor and colour graphics adaptor with five free slots and serial and parallel ports. The company has previously specialised in power supplies, but has won itself a leg-up into the Personalike market with Central Computer & Telecommunications Agency approval for purchase by UK government departments. The company expects to be able to announce a big UK educational order for the box shortly.
