Vortex Computersysteme

Vortex Logo

Vortex Computersysteme from Neckarsulm, Germany, was a hardware and software manufacturer for the Amstrad CPC. It was founded in 1984 by Mr. Michel and his brother, Mr. Majer and Mrs. Armbruster. Vortex now is called ICP (Intelligent Computer Peripherals) an is an Adaptec Company, specialized in RAID-Controllers.

F1

A 5.25" disc drive. 80 tracks and 708Kb.

F1 - S Single 5.25" drive with controller.
F1 - Z Single 5.25" drive without controller.
F1 - D Double 5.25" drive with controller.

The disc drive also was available as an extended versions :

F1 - XRS which also contains a RS232 interface.
F1 - X which can be updated with a RS232 interface.

On the F1-S/D Controllers the Disc operation system VDOS 1.0 on ROM was included. On the F1-X/XRS Controllers the Disc operation system VDOS 2.0 on ROM was included.

Manual can be found here F1

The Vortex F1 Drives
F1-Z Disc Drive
F1-D Disc Drive

M1

A 3.5" disc drive. 80 tracks and 708KB Formatted per Disk.

M1 - S Single 3.5" drive with controller.
M1 - Z Single 3.5" drive without controller.
M1 - D Double 3.5" drive with controller.

The disc drive also was available as an extended version:

M1-XRS which also contains a RS232 interface.
M1-X which can be updated with a RS232 interface.

Disc operation system VDOS 2.0 on ROM included.

The Vortex disc drive controller

The Vortex disc controler was similar to Amstrads own controller. It used the same controler chip, the NEC765.

The Vortex Disc Drive Controller
A anonymous box houses the controller
Look inside the controller
Controller with VDOS mounted

SP

RAM expansion card. Not compatible to the dk'tronics memory expansion. Sold in different sizes of RAM as SP 64, SP 128, SP 256, SP 320 and SP 512 (resulting in a maximum RAM size of the computer of 576KiB). Usable under BASIC and CP/M and offering a RAM disc.