Nascom

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The 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 display interface was uncommon in this era, most microcomputers at the time only being delivered with a hexadecimal 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 Z80A
CPU speed	2.5 MHz	4 MHz
Monitor/OS*	NAS-BUG 1 (1 KB EPROM)	NAS-SYS 1 (2 KB ROM)
RAM	2 KB, exp. to 64 KB	8 KB, exp. to 1 MB
Discontinued	1979	1983
* A debug monitor/simple OS was included with the machines. CP/M versions 1.4, 2.2 and 3.0 where also available later. The Display of the Nascom 2 consisted of 48 columns by 16 rows, white characters on black background with no graphics. It was possible to purchase an add-on Graphics Chip (approx price £20 in 1980) for the Nascom 2 that added a further 128 Graphics Characters. The built-in Microsoft Basic interpreter could use these graphics to create a primitive and blocky-like 96 x 48 graphics display.

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

Interest in the Nascom architecture still exists today with a 32 bit version available. [1]