Company

How all began

Superboard II single board view

TI-57

After my TI-57 programmable handheld calculator the Superboard II from Ohio Scientific was my first computer. Around 1980 I got this machine, a 6502- based single-board computer with 8K of RAM and BASIC in ROM. The board needed an extra 5V, 3A power supply to run. (everything needed something extra)

The board was a revision B and had from the previous owner some enhancements in the VDU section to display the entire 32x32 characters on a standard TV monitor.

The main board design was quite simple by today's standards but the double sided board had a good quality ideal to do various modifications. The chips were 'normal' TTL and the board contained the keyboard, CPU, ROM, RAM (up to 8K on board), a video section for connection to a monitor or TV via an RF modulator, and cassette I/O.

Upon boot-up, the user was presented with a prompt for 'D/C/W/M ?' which allowed you to boot from disk, cold boot, warm boot or enter the monitor to debug machine-code programs. There was no disk drive and no integrated controller and due to the high market prices far out of reach.

Machine view

Not my case but very close

The software was supplied on cassette tapes which loaded at 300 baud, with some enhancements up to 600 baud.

Later the "naked" board became a nice self made wodden case. I have seen, that such a case was typical for many Superboard or Compukit user to compete with Apple or Atari machines.

Superboard distribution

Marked price in DM of a German distrubutor in 1982

Machine details found on http://its.svensson.org about the OSI C2-4P, C2-8P, C4P, C8P, C1P & Superboard (SBII)

Board hardware/software details

Main board layout

General: The C2-4P is 15"x18"x4.5". The general appearance is similar

to the SOL-20, but it doesn't have the stained wood sides. It

is discontinued, but is still available on retail. The C2-8P is

17"x15"x10". It resembles pictures of the SWTP 6800 system.

All jacks are on the back panel and the front panel has a

shiny silver panel on a blue background. It has a MONSTER of

a power supply. The C4 and C8 are OSI's new versions of the

C2-4P and C2-8P. The SBII is a single board computer, just

plug in a CRT and +5 volts and you're up. The C1P is the SBII

with a case and power supply.

Prices: C2-4P is $500 with mini-floppies $600 extra. C2-8P is $700

plus $1000 for 8" floppies. C4 is $700, $1700 with

mini floppies, and the C8 is $900, $2600 with 8" floppies (2).

The SBII is $280, C1P is $400, $1000 with 20K RAM and 5.25"

disk drive.

Bus: The OSI C2, C4 & C8 all use OSI's 48 pin bus. This is an

extremely noise free bus, but has drawbacks that should be

noted. It is not S100 and in the C2-4P and C4P, there is only

a 4 slot backplane, and two slots are used in the basic

configuration. The C2-8P has 8 backplane slots. OSI supplies

numerous boards for the 48 pin bus, notable are the Votrax (R)

unit, the universal telephone interface <phone-freaks

ultimate!>, AC remote control, home security system, and many

static & dynamic memory boards.

CPU:

The C1, C2s, C4 & C8 are controlled by a 6502 micro-processor.

Therefore, they cannot run CP/M 8080, Z80, or 6800 code; but this is no

drawback for there are millions of programs written in 6502 code.

Ports: Three RCA phono jacks on the rear panel take care of the video

out <yes, RCA jack, Virginia>, tape in, tape out. I have

changed these jacks on my computer to BNC, and phone,

respectively. For the video interface, simply connect the RCA

jack to the input of any CRT monitor. If you prefer to avoid

that expense, use any low cost RF modulator to hook it up to

your TV set's antenna terminals. The floppies for the C4 and

C8 have extended ports (e.g. RTC, home security, DA/AD

converters and much more.)

Display: C1 and SBII have a 24x24 screen. The C2, C4 and C8 have a

64x27 screen, (software selectable 32x27). The C4 and C8 have

color graphics (the others are Black&White).

Keyboard: The C2-4P has a self contained keyboard which is a dream to

operate. It is a real typewriter style keyboard with

capacitive contacts and the "feel" to a touch typist is almost

indistinguishable from an office typewriter. The C2-8P has a

detached keyboard.

Mass Storage: The C2-4P and C4 are available with mini floppies and

the C2-8P and C8 with 8" floppies. OSI produces only

mini-floppy upgrades for the C2-4P and C2, and only 8" floppy

upgrades for the C2-8P and C8. This is no problem though, all

one needs to do is order whichever upgrade he wants, and

simply plug it in himself. The 630 board is available for

adding disk(s) to the SBII. The C1P is available with 5.25" floppies.

Operating System:

All the computers support Microsoft 8k basic <made

by the same people that designed Applesoft, RS L2, PET, and I

believe Atari basics> in ROM. There is also a system

mini-monitor. On power-up, the screen displays "D/C/W/M"; D

stands for "disk boot"; C stands for "Coldstart ROM Basic"; W

for warmstart <either disk or ROM basic>; and M is for

monitor.

Software: OSI has a large line of educational, business, personal and

game programs, and Aardvark Electronics has a large catalog

devoted to OSI hard/software; also Kilobaud magazine has

started publishing many OSI articles lately. OSI's public

relations have improved greatly too. Problems in finding

support for OSI computers is definitely a thing of the past.

For Emulator related questions and comments: Superboard