RM Nimbus
RM Nimbus was a range of personal computers from British company Research Machines (now RM Education) sold from 1985 until the early 1990s, after which the designation Nimbus was discontinued. The first of these computers, the RM Nimbus PC-186, was not PC compatible, but its successors the PC-286 and PC-386 were. RM computers were predominantly sold to schools and colleges in the United Kingdom for use as LAN workstations in classrooms.
Models
PC-186
The RM Nimbus PC-186 was a 16-bit microcomputer introduced in 1985. It used the Intel 80186 processor, the predecessor of the Intel 80286 as used by the IBM PC/AT.
It ran MS-DOS 3.1 but was not IBM PC compatible. The PC-186 could run Windows versions up to and including Windows 3.0, but only in real mode, as protected mode was introduced with the later 286 processor.
Most PC-186 systems were used as workstations within a Local Area Network and were supplied without a hard disk. The operating system was started from a floppy disk or via a remote boot ROM on its network interface card, connecting to the LAN's fileserver. Stand-alone workstations were more rare but available with either twin floppy drives or a 20Mbyte hard drive and single floppy drive.
Nimbus
Nimbus, from the Latin for "dark cloud", may refer to:
Science and computing
In business
Nimbus Sans
Nimbus Sans is a sans-serif typeface created by URW++, based on Helvetica.
Nimbus Sans
It is a version using URW++ font source. The family supports Western Europe, East Europe, Turkish, Baltic, Romanian languages.
Some of the fonts have history predating Helvetica's first release. For example, Nimbus Sans bold condensed, Nimbus Sans bold condensed (D) were dated 1940; Nimbus Sans Black Condensed, Nimbus Sans Black Condensed (D) were dated 1946.
The font names ending with (D) have slightly lighter font weights and tighter spacing.
Nimbus Sans Poster
It is a version of Nimbus Sans with even tighter spacing than the Nimbus Sans (D) fonts. Other changes include alternate designs for currency symbols.
Nimbus Sans Diagonal
It is a version with more right lean than Nimbus Sans italic fonts. The family currently only includes 1 font, in Black weight in medium width.
Nimbus Sans Mono
It is a monospaced variant of Nimbus Sans. The family currently only includes 1 font, in Regular weight in medium width.
RM Education
RM Education is the principal division of the RM Group, a British company that specialises in providing Information Technology products and services to educational organisations and establishments. Its key market is UK education including schools, colleges, universities, government education departments and educational agencies.
RM employs around 1,800 people, the majority based in the company's headquarters located on Milton Park, near Didcot, Oxfordshire. RM also has offices across the UK and a software development facility in India.
History
The company was founded in 1973 as "Research Machines" in Oxford, England by Mike Fischer and Mike O'Regan, respectively graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Initially it traded under the name Sintel as a mail-order supplier of electronic components, mainly dealing with the hobbyist market.
With the arrival of microcomputer chips in the mid-1970s, the company expanded into the design and manufacturing of microcomputers. The company shipped its first computer in 1977 to a customer in a Local Education Authority and has been involved with educational computing ever since.
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