Phoenix Computer Products MS-DOS User's Guide and User's Reference 1988

[tipc]

I have it here, a single bound manual. Was this supplied with hardware? Was there any other manuals, as this being part of a set?

 

[krebizfan]

It was supposed to be sold with hardware. Typically, it would be paired with a manual for GW-BASIC. There might also have been a slim Getting Started brochure depending on exactly when it was printed. Other manuals would have been supplied with the computer but printed completely separately with generally obviously different bindings.

 

[tipc]

So was this a computer with the Phoenix name brand on it?

 

[krebizfan]

I can't find an ad showing Phoenix selling complete computers but they did sell CPU upgrade cards like the Pfaster. They also had an early business customizing DOS for small specialty makers. Might have been sold on its own but the contract terms were supposed to prevent that.

I am presuming that the Phoenix Computer Products listed is the one from Norwood, MA which became the Phoenix Technologies of BIOS fame.

 

[T-R-A]

I am presuming that the Phoenix Computer Products listed is the one from Norwood, MA which became the Phoenix Technologies of BIOS fame.

Likely so...remember, during the '87-'96 timeframe, virtually everyone was producing PC's. Wasn't unusual to see companies rise and fall within just a couple of years, until the 'net became popular (and Computer Shopper magazine didn't). For some reason I saved the June '95 edition of C/S---almost 800 pages. I'm sure a couple years prior it probably approached 900 or 1000.

 

[tipc]

If P* sold a pc with their name on it, I want to see it. And even if they did, it must simply be a rebranded more or less vanilla clone.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

Looking through old Infoworld articles it looks like Phoenix signed up to be an MS-DOS sub-licensee at the same time they started selling their clone BIOS to other PC makers, and Phoenix-branded versions of MS-DOS persisted until at least 4.0. One of the oldest articles about the Phoenix BIOS from 1984 specifically says they were offering OEMs a BIOS-plus-their versions of MS-DOS 2.11 and GW-BASIC package deal.

My guess is, then, that they didn't actually sell PCs but some of their lazier white-box customers didn't bother slapping their own branded manuals together, instead simply redistributing a generic "Phoenix" brand one.