Sirius Systems Technology

Sirius Systems Technology (not to be confused with fictional company Sirius Cybernetics Corporation) was a personal computer manufacturer in Scotts Valley, CA, USA. It was founded by Chuck Peddle and Chris Fish, formerly of MOS Technology. In 1982 Sirius bought Victor Business Systems, known for its calculators and cash registers, and changed its name to Victor Technologies. It made the Victor/Sirius series of personal computers. Victor seems to have been a subsidiary of Walter Kidde Inc., a three billion dollar conglomerate.

The Victor 9000 (European name: ACT Sirius S1, distributed by British company Apricot Computers) was conceived by Peddle—who had also designed the first Commodore PET—and launched in 1982. This machine was quite innovative and superior in many points to the original IBM PC. The Victor 9000/Sirius S1 ran CP/M and MS-DOS but was no IBM PC compatible. It met a certain success in Europe (IBM delayed the European launch of its PC for 18 months and that was ample time for ACT to establish the Sirius S1 as a bestseller and to build up a commanding lead for a short time).