The new micro from LSI - Putting Britain back in front

It's another random entry in the "who?" category, from paid-up flag-flying British company LSI - not to be confused with Lear Siegler Incorporated, a US terminal manufacturer -  which claims in the advert to be Britain's leading micro-computer manufacturer. 

The company also appears to have been supported by the Department for Industry, which probably explains its vanishing without trace and why there doesn't seem to be much information about the company anywhere in the wider internet.

The micro on offer - the System M-Three - is another Zilog Z80-based micro with 64K, together with an integral display and floppy drives, with the option of a Winchester hard disk. It was a follow-up to the M-Two, which was launched in December 1980[source: "LSI Computers", PRAC, September 1981, p. 177].

The basic model, with just a single 350K 5¼" floppy retailed for £1,795 (about [[1795|1982]] in [[now]]) with the top-of-the-range model featuring a 10MB Winchester and a 1.2MB 8" floppy going out for £4,750, or [[4750|1982]] now.

[picture: LSI_rentals_percw_may82.webp|The LSI System M-Three plus software and printer was also available for rental at £16 per week, which is about [[16|1982]] per week or [[832|1982]] per year in [[now]] ]

LSI's System M-Four (or M4) micro, which was launched the following year, was used as the basis for a specialist insurance broker software package, released by Loxton Computers. 

For a not-insubstantial £8,000 ([[8000|1983]] in [[now]]), you could get a printer, a mailmerge system - which would work with Wordstar - and five days' training[source: "Micros go for Brokers", p.6 Personal Computer News, Vol 1.  No. 24, August 24 1983].

[picture: BritishGenius_prac_nov81.webp |LSI's System M-Three masquerading as the "British Genius Microcomputer", as sold by The Micro Solution Limited of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. From PRAC, November 1981]

LSI - or rather its manufacturing division CPU Computers[source: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/information-wanted-lsi-computers-m-four.1239479/] - also produced OEM micros for other companies, with this System M-Three model appearing as the Caltext Micro as well as the British Genius from The Micro Solution, and with another of its micros appearing as the [=cal_wordproc_percw_nov82|Caltext Word Processor], both distributed by Computer Ancilliaries Limited.

LSI was around until at least 1985 when it released its Octopus Computer system.
                                                                
Known internally by its code name of the System M-Five, this was a dual-CPU highly-expandable transportable computer which was capable of supporting up to six additional terminal users[source: https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/26767/LSI-Octopus-Computer/].
