Archford

Archford Computers International

London-based Archford Computers was the first vendor to offer PICK Open Architecture in 1986. Officially licensed for OA in 1985, Archford offers OA, version 1 and 2 on its Excalibur line of hardware.

The Archford product was released, amidst many initial OA bugs, with the help of Concurrent Operating Systems Technology (C.O.S.T.)—the company technically spearheaded by Tim Holland, the ex-vice president of development for Pick Systems. C.O.S.T. ported OA to the Excalibur, at the same time it was working with Sequoia Systems and Rexon Business Machines on their OA implementations.

Archford claimed to market its OA product worldwide, although little was heard from it in the United States, nor does it claim any distribution networks in the U.S. The seven Archford dealers were located in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Africa, Thailand, Europe and Scandinavia.