The Briefcase Nascom

1978 · Self-Built Z80 Kit Computer · Work 971 of 1,871

An instrument maker's workshop in England on a winter afternoon, on a workbench beside a small lathe an opened black grained briefcase with chrome clasps, set into its lower half a brushed aluminium plate carrying a grey typewriter keyboard, every key plain, smooth and unmarked, above it a row of small red lamps glowing, small black toggle switches, in the raised lid black cloth pockets, a small black and white television beside it glowing soft even grey, behind it a second home-built computer in a sloping aluminium case with pale wooden side cheeks, two hands in brown cotton oversleeves typing, low sun through a dusty window.

What it was used for
A bare-board self-build kit that buyers soldered themselves . The Centre for Computing History gives the launch as January 1978 at 197.50 pounds plus VAT, a Zilog Z80 at 1 or 2 MHz and about 1,310 hand-soldered joints on a board with 203 parts. Behind it stood Kerr Borland and John Marshall. Over 12,000 units were sold in the first 18 months; the Nascom 2 replaced it in 1979. The Carleton University collection gives 2 KB of memory fitted, of which about 850 bytes were available to the user.
What was new
What stands out is the full typewriter keyboard. The Centre for Computing History notes that most kits of the period made do with a hexadecimal keypad and a 7-segment display, while the Nascom 1 brought a real keyboard. The price was on the same board: 1,310 soldered joints, every one of which had to be good before anything worked at all. And of the 2 KB of memory fitted, the Carleton collection says about 850 bytes were left to the user - less than a page of text.

What the sources leave open: The Carleton University page contradicts itself: its description says the launch was 1977, while the data list on the same page says 1978. The Centre for Computing History gives January 1978, which is followed here. The 2 KB and 850 byte memory figures appear only at Carleton; neither source gives a price for a ready-built machine. Carleton also gives over 3,000 solder joints elsewhere instead of 1,310.

Further reading