- This article is about the computer manufacturer. For the similarly-named fictional company, see Sirius Cybernetics Corp.
Sirius Systems Technology 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 company made a public offering in the first half of 1983, but went into Chapter 11 protection before the end of 1984. The company's assets were acquired by Datatronic, a Swedish software company headed by Mats Gabrielsson. The latter signed a distribution deal with Kyocera, who began to supply PC clones to Victor. The Victor 9000 (English name: ACT Sirius S1, distributed in the UK by British company Applied Computer Techniques[1]) was conceived by Peddle—who had also designed the first Commodore PET—and presented for the first time at the Systems show in Munich, Germany in late 1981. Chuck Peddle used two of his Commodore contacts to set up two subsidiaries in continental Europe. David Deane (France) and Juergen Tepper (Germany) were both ex-Mannesmann Tally whom Chuck had met while negotiating an OEM deal for printers. The Sirius1 was very innovative and superior in many points to the original IBM PC. The Victor 9000/Sirius S1 ran CP/M-86 and MS-DOS but was no PC clone. It offered a higher resolution screen as well as 600Ko/1.2Mo floppy drives, for example. It met with significant success in Europe (IBM delayed the European launch of its PC for 18 months and that was ample time to establish the Sirius S1 as a bestseller and to build up a commanding lead for a short time). ACT was a major reason for this success. Not only did it outsell the Sirius/Victor subsidiaries, but it also led the way in proving that application software was the key to sales. Most sales across Europe went through small system houses rather than computer shops.
