[[Category:Amstrad Products]][[Category:CPC History]][[Category:CPC Internal Components]]
== LK1,LK2,LK3 ==
LK1,LK2,LK3 connect are optional links on the CPC mainboard, connected to [[8255#PPI Port B|PPI Port B]], Bit1-3. The links select the manufacturer distributor name (which is displayed by the BIOS in the power-up boot message). These LKs exist on all CPC mainboards (in CPC Plus/GX4000 schematics they are named LK101,LK102,LK103). By default, LK1-LK3 are not installed (Amstrad). Other combinations are LK2 installed in german [[Schneider]] models, and LK1+LK2 in australian [[Awa]] models.
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* '''Note:''' Some of the brand names seem to include slight mis-spellings: "Awa" and "Orion" are more commonly written all uppercase, "AWA" and "ORION". And, if below speculations are correct, "Isp" and "Triumph" would refer to "ISP KG" and "Triumph-Adler".
* '''Note:''' In the CPC Plus schematics, the links are named LK101,LK102,LK103 - although on the actual CPC Plus mainboard the normal names are used: LK1,LK2,LK3.
== Used Brand Names ==
=== Amstrad ===
[[File:Amstrad.png|thumb|left|120px|Amstrad Logo]]
'''Amstrad''', being the company that has developed the CPC, is the default brand name shown in the boot message in most countries.
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=== Awa ===
[[http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/File:Awa_CPC464Amstrad-awa-thorn.jpg|thumb|left|120px|Awa CPC 464Thorn]]Australian CPCs were distributed by '''Mitsubishi Electric AWA Pty Ltd/ AWA-Thorn''' distributed CPC computers in Australia. Externally, these CPCs are looking look identical to english English CPCs (with the normal Amstrad logo above the ESC key). Internally, LK1 and LK2 are shortenedshorted, so the BIOS displays "[[Awa]]" instead of Amstrad in the boot message. Whereas, Amstrad made a small mistake: The correct name would be "AWA", not "Awa".
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=== Schneider ===
[[Image:Schneider Computer Division logo.jpg|thumb|left|120px|Schneider Logo]]
'''Schneider Computer Division''' exclusively distributed the CPC on the german market until their partnership with Amstrad ended around late 1987 or early 1988.
However, some US export models from Spain were produced with the Solavox setting. Why this has happened, if those models actually reached the USA, and if Solavox UK was aware of this operation is unknown. For details, see the [[Solavox]] page.
== Unused Brand Names ==
=== Orion ===
[[Image:CTM644 05.jpg|120px|thumb|CTM644 Monitor]]
'''ORION Electric Co,. Ltd.''' is a japanese company, founded 1958 by Shigemasa Otake. In [[LK-selectable Brand Names#Interview|the interview]], Cliff Lawson has confirmed that Amstrad planned to export CPCs to "far east", using [[Orion]] as a partner. As with some other brand names, Amstrad 'converted' the upper-case "ORION" to "Orion" in the boot message.
As far as At least one "[[Orion]]" branded CPC is known, the partnership didnto exist and has been found in China. We don't worked in that direction - know yet if it was just a demonstration unit for a trade show, or if it was effectively distributed there have been no CPCs sold using the Orion brandin confidential quantities. Two manuals and catalogs in Chinese were also found. However, it worked the opposite way around: Amstrads [[CTM640/CTM644]] and [[GT64/GT65]] monitors contain cathode ray tubes from ORION. Some webpages also mention that the CPC computer itself was manufactured by Orion (in Korea). The confusing part here is that there is also another company, '''Orion Electronics Ltd''', established in 1913 in Hungary. Using exactly the same ORION logo than the later japanese company from 1958.
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== Unused Brand Names ==
=== Isp ===
'''Isp''' might refer to '''ISP KG Dieter Lather''', which operates (from 1975 until today, 2010) as european distributor for ORION products. There The [[LK-selectable Brand Names#Interview|interview]] doesn't confirm whether or not Amstrad was referring to ISP KG. However, there is no other known big electronics company using known to use "ISP " or "Isp " as brand name and being active back in 1983.
Considering that Amstrad did have some relations with ORION, it doesn't seem too unlikely that they also planned to work with ISP KG. Although, as far as known, ISP never rebadged the ORION products as ISP products, so there would have been no real requirement for the [[Isp]] boot message.
The [[LK-selectable Brand Names#Interview|interview]] doesn't confirm whether or not Amstrad was referring to ISP KG.
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=== Arnold ===
'''Arnold''' is some sort of an internal codename for the CPC series. It's also included as (non-selectable) dummy-entry in the brand name list in the BIOS ROM. The way how the BIOS is programmed makes it necessary to include a leading dummy-entry in that list, basically, this could have been an empty string (a single 00h byte), but for some reason, Amstrad put [[Arnold (Codename)|Arnold]] in there.
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:Cliff"
Note: The part about australia is correct in so far that the australian CPCs have normal Amstrad logos on the keyboard, however, several people confirmed that they do display "Awa" in the boot message.
== See also ==
* Aside from the distributor links, Amstrad has also used further LKs for various other purposes. See [[LK Links]] for details.
* [[CPCs Worldwide]]