🚀 go-pugleaf

Simon Jones wrote:
> 
> In article <34cc5...@news.power.net.uk>, bi...@DeathsDoor.com says...
> > I ran the user group for the MK14, one of the first UK "home computers" back
> > in 1978(ish).
> >
> > The spec for this machine, before any kind of addons was:
> >
> > SC/MP processor, 256 bytes of RAM, 512 bytes ROM, led digit display, numeric
> > keypad, and no way of saving your code!  A cassette interface and other
> > goodies soon followed: the cassette interface was so slow, you could make
> > out the individual bits.  Eventually I had 1 1/2 K of ram, and a rather
> > feeble video output, but that was really so late in its career to be
> > pointless.
> >
> > I've got a picture somewhere of the rats nest that was my system, I'll have
> > to scan it into my web page.
> >
> > Geoff
> 
> Fond memories, yes. This is the machine that I learnt to program in
> assembler on. I eventually built a video display from a design published
> in Personal Computer World back in the days when they actually had
> circuit diagrams and hardware construction projects. Ordered all the
> TTL and memory chips from the US because at that time it was about twice
> as much to buy them in the UK even with shipping.
> 
> Does anybody have any information about the SC/MP ? I know it was a bit-
> serial processor but I can't remember much about the architecture. There
> were several computers in that era based on it.
> 
> I'd love to hear other recollections of the UK home computer scene from
> around that time.
> 
I *never* used one of these SC/MP computers, but I have three old books with
information about the SC/MP. I am attempting to write a cross-assembler for
it. If you are interested, the books are:

_Best of Interface Age: Volume I-Software in BASIC_, edited by Carl D. Warren,
Dilithium Press, 1979, Forest Grove, Oregon, ISBN: 0-918398-36-3. This book
has a chapter with the assembly source for the NIBL BASIC interpreter.

_How to Design, Build & program your Own Working Computer System_, by Rober P
Haviland, TAB Books, 1979, Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, ISBN:
0-8306-9810-8 (hardback) or ISBN: 0-8306-1111-8 (paperback). This book
contains hardware info on the SC/MP, as well as how to make a small ROM memory
using diodes.

_An Introduction to Microcomputers: Volume II-Some Real Products_, by Adam
Osborne, Adam Osborne and Associates, 1976, Berkeley, California, (no ISBN).
Chapter two of this book gives details about the machine language and hardware
aspects of the SC/MP.

By the way, did the MK14 use the SC/MP or the SC/MP II microprocessor? The
original SC/MP would *not* drive TTL devices without special interface chips.
The SC/MP II did *not* have this problem.


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|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <rich...@plano.net>   |
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