Nascom

The Lucas Nascom 1 and 2 were single-board computer kits issued in 1977 and 1979, respectively, based on the Zilog Z80 and including a keyboard and video interface, as well as a serial port that could be used for storing data on a tape cassette using the Kansas City standard. The inclusion of a full keyboard and video interface was uncommon in this era, most microcomputers at the time only being delivered with a hex keypad and 7-seg display.

Model	Nascom 1	Nascom 2
Introduced	December 1977	December 1979
MSRP (price)	£197.50	£225
CPU (µP)	Zilog Z80	Zilog Z80
CPU speed	2.5 MHz	4 MHz
Monitor/OS*	NAS-BUG 1 (X KB ROM)	NAS-SYS 1 (2 KB ROM)
RAM	2 KB, exp. to 64 KB	8 KB, exp. to 64 KB
Discontinued	1979	1983
* A debug monitor/simple OS was included with the machines.

The predecessor of Borland's very successful Turbo Pascal compiler and IDE for CP/M and MS-DOS was developed by Blue Label Software for the Nascom 2, under the name Blue Label Software Pascal, or BLS Pascal.

This microcomputer/microprocessor-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

External links

Nascom homepage – With software and documentation
Nascom hall
Nascom Nostalgia

Categories: Microcomputer stubs | Early microcomputers