The Ohio Scientific Superboard II was one of the first successful single-board micros. In 1978, it shipped with a 6502 processor and 4K of memory, which was expandable to 8K. The video system displayed 24 lines of 24 characters on a monochrome composite monitor and a system monitor and 8K Microsoft BASIC was supplied in ROM. The board came with a 53-key alphanumeric QWERTY keyboard.

It was available for $279 or just under £300. All you had to do was add your own case, power supply, display, and a cassette recorder for saving/loading programs.

They also offered basically the same system as the Challenger IP with case and power supply for $349, and a fully expanded system with 16K memory and a 5.25-inch floppy drive went for $1190. OSI sold a considerable number of these machines to hobbyists because the 1P was extremely good value.

Our unit, the Superboard II model 610, has been enhanced with additional memory board and hard disk interface and was very kindly donated by Michael J Davis from Rochdale who has owned the system since new. It has a Control Data CDC 5.25-inch dual disk drive unit as well as a power supply. This is all in excellent condition and includes all manuals and documentation.

Manufacturer: Ohio Scientific
Date: October 1978

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH6958. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.