Podcast Episode 4: Single Board Computers
Listen along as David Greelish and Jeff Salzman discuss several of the early single board computers, including the Nascom 1, OSI Superboard, MOS Technology KIM-1, and the COSMAC ELF.
All of the above single board computers don’t easily fit into the History of Personal Computing’s “Tier” philosophy, so this special podcast episode was produced.
You can find out more about these machines on the History of Personal Computing online museum. Click on the appropriate link:
- Nascom 1: http://www.historyofpersonalcomputing.com/nascom-1
- OSI Superboard: http://www.historyofpersonalcomputing.com/osi-superboard-i-and-ii
- MOS Technology KIM-1: http://www.historyofpersonalcomputing.com/mos-technology-kim-1
- COSMAC ELF: http://www.historyofpersonalcomputing.com/cosmac-elf
Links mentioned in the show include:
- Cover picture of the May 1978 issue of Personal Computer World
- Nasbug v1.T2
- Nascom 2 video
- OSI Superboard II video
- Ohio Scientific’s Small Systems Journal within the pages of Micro 6502 Journal magazine issue 25
- WinOSI emulator
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1
- http://oldcomputers.net/kim1.html
- Rare Commodore KIM-1 hits eBay, shows you the PET’s barebones roots
- http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/kim-1/emu.html
- Briel Computers micro-KIM
- Lee Hart’s 1802 “Membership Card”
- Popular Electronics, August 1976, “Build The COSMAC “ELF” A Low-Cost Experimenter’s Microcomputer”
- http://www.cosmacelf.com/
- http://www.elf-emulation.com/emulator.html
- White Rose Gameroom Show
- The PDF eBook version of David’s book is now free!
- Stan Veit’s History of the Personal Computer Audiobook Podcast 5 is out! Chapter 5: The Early Days of Apple Computer
eBay links (you may need to scroll down the linked pages to see the full auction)
Jeff’s Picks
David’s Picks
Send feedback to feedback@HistoryOfPersonalComputing.com – We really want to hear from you by email or send an audio comment! Also, as we cover these computers, we would love to receive your high-quality pictures of the machines we’ve covered, so please start sending them in.
Also, please write a review on iTunes!
You can download the episode directly by using this link: http://www.historyofpersonalcomputing.com/podcast/HofPC4.mp3
or, you can subscribe to our podcast feed at: http://podcast.historyofpersonalcomputing.com/rss.xml
October, 27th 2014 at 4:02 pm
This kind of “Wraps Up”, the First Level of Computer Hobbyists..
If you think of Computers as being made of either Hardware or Software, the computers in this Episode will appeal to the Hardware types of Computer Users.. Even with the KIM-1 being fairly Hardware Complete..
You following Episodes, covering the Commodore PET’s, the Apple 2’s, and the TRS-80’s will appeal to the Software types of Computer Users. And with all those available Slots in the Apple 2, the Hardware Users still had options too.
November, 20th 2014 at 1:34 pm
There is an Arduino based Kim-1 emulator called the Kim-Uno which I just purchased for a quite reasonable price. http://obsolescence.wix.com/obsolescence
So if you cant afford the real thing which at this point goes for a lot on ebay, or the more expensive but much more ‘classic’ looking Micro-Kim, you can still get that feel for how these single board computers worked back in the day.
November, 21st 2014 at 1:31 pm
That’s quite an interesting KIM clone. I do Arduino stuff myself and find it fascinating that the UNO is powerful enough to manage as a KIM-1 in that capacity.
It would be cool to see how well old KIM-1 interfacing projects work on the Micro-KIM.