Nascom

The Nascom 1 and 2 were single-board computer kits issued in the United Kingdom in 1977 and 1979, respectively, based on the Zilog Z80 and including a keyboard and video interface, a serial port that could be used to store data on a tape cassette using the Kansas City standard, and two 8-bit parallel ports. At that time, including a full keyboard and video display interface was uncommon, as most microcomputer kits were then delivered with only a hexadecimal keypad and seven-segment display. To minimize cost, the buyer had to assemble a Nascom by hand-soldering about 3,000 joints on the single circuit board. Later on, a pre-built, cased machine named Nascom 3 was available; this used the Nascom 2 board.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right:0" |- ! Model ! Nascom 1 ! Nascom 2 |- ! Introduced | December 1977 | December 1979 |- ! MSRP (price) | £197.50 | £225 |- ! CPU (μP) | Zilog Z80 | Zilog Z80A |- ! CPU speed | 2 MHz | 2 or 4 MHz (switch on main board) |- ! Monitor/OS* | NAS-BUG 1 (1 KB EPROM) | NAS-SYS 1, most were shipped with NAS-SYS 3 (2 KB ROM) |- ! RAM | 2 KB (1 KB used for display), exp. to 64 KB | 8 KB, exp. to 1 MB |- ! Dimensions | 8" x 10" (main board) | 8" x 12" (main board) |- ! Discontinued | 1979 | 1983 |- |colspan="3"| * A debug monitor and simple operating system (OS) was included with the devices. CP/M versions 1.4, 2.2 and 3.0 were also available later. |}