1979 UK-101
Made in the UK by Compukit in New Barnet, North London, the UK-101 was originally a copy of the Ohio Scientific Superboard II. Two years and various legal battles later the UK-101 became, technically, behind its erstwhile rival.
You could buy the UK101 as a kit or as ready made for an extra fee. The kit came in a cardboard briefcase, in which there were anti-static tubes containing the 65+ ICs, a box of IC sockets, and bags containing passives (mainly 0.1uF ceramic decoupling capacitors) and keyboard bits (the keyboard switches were soldered directly to the PCB).
The UK101 came with a transformer in a plastic case, which was rectified and regulated down to +5, the regulator’s heatsink was far too small and it would run very very hot, causing the RF modulator to drift channel. Many people relocated the regulator off-board onto a bigger heatsink to solve both problems.
It came with an A4-size book authored by Dr. A.A. Berk, covering assembly, trouble-shooting, and circuit diagrams with descriptions.
The UK101 was based around the 6502 processor. On top of ASCII characters, 128 graphic characters were available in ROM. The RAM memory was expandable from 4 KB to 8 KB on board, or 40 KB with an expansion board.
At the time, The UK101 was heavily supported by Watford Electronics in the UK, and by various electronics magazines who published circuits. There were many user groups and plenty of software available. It was thus possible to upgrade this machine beyond all recognision !
Several cases were also made and sold by a number of manufacturers.
| NAME | UK-101 |
| MANUFACTURER | Compukit |
| TYPE | Home Computer |
| ORIGIN | United Kingdom |
| YEAR | 1979 |
| BUILT IN LANGUAGE | Microsoft BASIC |
| KEYBOARD | Full stroke 50 keys |
| CPU | 6502 |
| SPEED | 1 MHz. (could be ‘overclocked’ at 2 MHz by modifying the clock divide circuit) |
| CO-PROCESSOR | None |
| RAM | 4 KB expandable to 8 KB on board |
| VRAM | 1 KB |
| ROM | 8 KB (Microsoft BASIC) + 2 KB monitor |
| TEXT MODES | 16 to 48 chars. x 16 lines |
| GRAPHIC MODES | None, but 128 graphic characters |
| COLORS | Monochrome |
| SIZE / WEIGHT | unknown |
| I/O PORTS | Tape recorder (at 300 baud) and printer ports |
| BUILT IN MEDIA | None |
| POWER SUPPLY | External AC transformer. Power regulation on board |
| PERIPHERALS | Supports all Ohio Scientific expansions |
| PRICE | £249 in kit form |
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Filed under: 70s Computers,Homebrew Computers - @ January 31, 2022 3:14 PM