This computer was presented in June 1989 at the CES in Chicago. At that time, the original PC series had already been discontinued, despite the Atari PC4 having been launched only a month earlier. In practice, the ABC286 is therefore the successor to the PC4, but in reality it is the same machine in a different casing.

Several versions were released. Internally, there were the ABC8, ABC10, and ABC12, which used a smaller mainboard called the PC4LC, a low-cost version of the PC4. The ABC16 and ABC20 used the slightly larger PC4X mainboard.

The most important differences between the PC4X and PC4LC models are the absence of the fourth ISA slot, the XT slot, four of the eight memory slots, VGA graphics capability, and the external floppy connector.

Externally, three models were available: the ABC286, ABC286/30, and ABC286/60. The final number indicates the hard disk size in megabytes.

After the ABC286, the ABC386 was released in 1990. Both models were discontinued at the end of 1991.