The new Argus Pro-personal. Above all, a true 16-bit computer

Ferranti was a major UK-based electrical engineering firm which had been established in 1885. 

It had built its first computer in 1951, but was perhaps more well-known in the microcomputer industry as the company which produced Uncommitted Logic Array chips (ULAs) for Acorn and Sinclair. Issues with its production of the ULA for Acorn's BBC Micro were a significant factor in that machine's delayed release.

Here, it's dipping its toe into the world of the desktop microcomputer, advertising its PPC10 as a true 16-bit system, as it was built around Intel's 8086.

However, rather than going for the IBM-compatible market, its machine ran CP/M-86 - a version of the popular but ageing operating system from the 1970s.

There also appears to be an attempt to coin a new phrase for boxy, yellow computers, as "pro-personal". Needless to say, it didn't catch on.

The PPC10 retailed from £2,800 - about [[2800|1984]] in [[now]].