LK-selectable Brand Names

LK1,LK2,LK3

LK1,LK2,LK3 connect to PPI Port B, Bit1-3. The links select the manufacturer name (which is displayed by the BIOS in the power-up 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.

Bit 3 (LK3)	Bit 2 (LK2)	Bit 1 (LK1)	Distributor Name
0	0	0	Isp
0	0	1	Triumph
0	1	0	Saisho
0	1	1	Solavox
1	0	0	Awa (australian CPCs)
1	0	1	Schneider (german CPCs)
1	1	0	Orion
1	1	1	Amstrad (default)

Note: "0" means LK installed.

Used Brand Names

Awa

Australian CPCs were distributed by Mitsubishi Electric AWA Pty Ltd. Externally, these CPCs are looking identical to english CPCs (with the normal Amstrad logo above the ESC key). Internally, LK1 and LK2 are shortened, 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".

• For more info, see Awa

Unused Brand Names

Orion

CTM644 Monitor

ORION is japanese company, founded 1958 by Shigemasa Otake. In an interview, Alan Sugar 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 known, the partnership didn't worked in that direction - there have been no CPCs sold using the Orion brand. 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.

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.

Other Distributors/Manufacturers

Indescomp

Indescomp is the official spanish CPC distributor. Indescomp joined the marked a bit later than AWA and Schneider, and so, it didn't get a LK-selectable brand name in the BIOS. Even later localized models (with spanish character set & keyboard translation) displayed Amstrad in the boot message.

Patisonic

Patisonic is the manufacturer of an unlicensed russian CPC clone, the Aleste 520EX. It uses an EPROM with english CPC 6128 BIOS, with some modifactions (among others, replacing the LK-selectable brand names by hardcoded boot message).

VEB Mikroelektronik

VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Muehlhausen is the manufacturer of an unlicensed east german CPC clone, the KC Compact. It uses an EPROM with english CPC 6128 BIOS (although it contains only 64K RAM), with some modifactions (among others, replacing the LK-selectable brand names by hardcoded boot message).

Interview

Below is a Cliff Lawson email/interview, found at Charles da Silvas webpage (link), related to (some) of the optional brand names:

"Charles,

It was a marketing exercise with a view to being able to sell it under different brand names in different territories. For example Saisho may sound Far Eastern (Japanese?) but it's actually a brand name used by the UK's largest electrical retailer (Dixons) and a lot of their "own brand" product goes under the Saisho name. By having links, if Dixons had wanted some sort of exclusivity deal on the product but badged under their own name (OEM effectively) then this would allow for it. Orion were the name of the Far Eastern manuacturer and opened the possibility of it being sold in that market. As far as I know the only ones ever really used were Amstrad and Schneider (I think the Aussies just got "Amstrad" too).

Cliff"