NEC and Toshiba formed one of the 3 groupings of Japanese computer manufacturers, and together they received a subsidy from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and developed the ACOS Series 77 of general-purpose machines. This series had computers covering the entire range from small to large machines, but they used different architectures in small machines (System 200), mid-size machines (System 300, 400 and 500) and large machines (System 600, 700, 600S, 800 and 900). The OS installed in each type was, respectively, ACOS-2, ACOS-4 and ACOS-6.