In 1980, after quite some research, I bought my first computer: An Ohio Scientific Superboard II. At the time it was the best bang for the buck on the market: a complete single board computer for US$279 ($389 Canadian in the ad).It included a 1MHz 6502 processor (same as the Apple 2), 4K RAM expandable to 8K, on board Microsoft BASIC, a keyboard (on the motherboard!), and a cassette tape interface for storage. At the time an Apple 2 was well over $1,000 (although cheaper clones were on the market). This was before the introduction of the Commodore VIC20 and IBM PC.
I sprang the extra money to expand it to the full 8K of RAM (thats 8000 bytes, what a luxury!). I had to build my own case, 5V power supply, and RF modulator (to connect to a black and white television) and add a standard cassette tape recorder for mass storage.
I spent many hours with this machine learning BASIC and 6502 machine language before I moved on to an Apple 2 and then IBM PC compatibles.
Hi Jeff,
ReplyDeletewhile looking for some 8085 assembler, disassembler, emulator,... I came across your's in gitlab and wandered also to your blog site... Did some undusting of the UMS-85 kit - a 'cheap' microprocessor 'tinkerer' 8085 kit, that was the German Elo Magazin from the 1980.
Enjoyed very much so reading from all corners of your life.
About me: Intertec Superbrain QD - dual z80 64K dual 5-1/4 floppy CP/M 2.2 w/ Pascal and Basic ... and the UMS-85 and some self-build Z8 w/ piggy back EPROM. Around '75 played around w/ RCA COSMAC CDP 1802. Burt recent - when it comes to mcs, I'm doing Espruino - a JavaScript standalone on various hardware, mainly STM 32..., Nordic 52,,,