--- title: Lucas Nascom 1 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - United Kingdom years: - '1978' cpus: - Z80 params: name: Nascom 1 company: /companies/lucas company_name: Lucas specs: - label: NAME value: Nascom 1 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Lucas - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: United Kingdom - label: YEAR value: '1978' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Monitor - label: KEYBOARD value: Full stroke 47 keys - label: CPU value: Z80 - label: SPEED value: 1 or 2 MHz. - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: None - label: RAM value: 1 KB - label: VRAM value: 1 KB - label: ROM value: 1 or 2 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 48 chars. x 16 lines - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: None - label: COLORS value: Monochrome - label: SOUND value: Unknown - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 30.5 (L) x 19.2 (W) cm. (8 x 12 in) - label: I/O PORTS value: TV-UHF video interface, selectable serial port (Tape recorder or RS232 or Teletype current loop) - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: Cassette tape - label: OS value: Monitor in ROM - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Separate power supply unit (sold as option) - label: PERIPHERALS value: Memory boards and various I/O interfaces - label: PRICE value: £199 in kit form tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - emulators - links photos: - title: LARGE VIEW subtitle: '' text: Taken from a Nascom brochure image: null adverts: - title: NASCOM 1 BROCHURE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null hardware: - title: IEEE488 CARD subtitle: '' text: Made by EV Computing Ltd. image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_ieee488board_1.jpg - title: ROM CARD subtitle: '' text: |- This card can be fitted with 2708 (1 KB) or 2716 (2 KB) EPROM chips, giving up to 32 KB of ROM area. The card also provides a special socket (bottom left) for the 8K Microsoft BASIC interpreter ROM. image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_romboard_1.jpg - title: ROM/RAM MEMORY CARD subtitle: '' text: Features 32 KB RAM (16 x 4116) and 8 KB ROM (4 x 2708) image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_memoryboard_1.jpg - title: 48 KB RAM CARD subtitle: '' text: This card holds 3 banks of 16 KB 4116 RAM chips. image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_48kramboard_1.jpg - title: COLOR GRAPHICS CARD subtitle: '' text: The PLUTO color graphics card offered a maximum resolution of 768 x 576 pixels with 8 colours. It featured an Intel 8088 processor, 192 KB of RAM (3 planes of 64 KB) and could be connected to any RGB TTL or composite colour or monochrome monitor. image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_plutographcard_1.jpg - title: I/O CARD subtitle: '' text: |- This card provides support for six 8-bit parallel ports, one serial port (not installed here), and one counter/timer control unit. The card was supplied with empty sockets. Each device could be acquired separately. image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_iocard_1.jpg - title: FDD CONTROLLER CARD subtitle: '' text: Floppy disk drive controller card along with its genuine Lucas box. image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_fdboard_s1.jpg - title: BUS CARD EXTENDER subtitle: '' text: This card allowed to check any Nascom card without it being directly inserted into the Nascom bus. image: /media/museum/hardware/lucas_nascom2_busextender_s1.jpg emulators: - title: Nascom 1 emulator url: http://members.aol.com/mk14emu/nascom.htm platform: MS DOS text: This emulator, written by Paul Robson, supports all the hardware of the standard Nascom 1 - title: MESS url: http://www.mess.org platform: Windows text: MESS also emulates Nascom computers ! - title: Nasemu url: http://www.myplace.nu/nascom/nasemu.htm platform: Windows text: This Nascom-2 emulator is a work in progress. It is an attempt to fully emulate a Nascom-2 computer. - title: Nascom 2 / 3 Java Emulator url: http://www.nascomhomepage.com/#Virtual%20Nascom platform: Other platform text: Java emulator written by Richard Espley is available. - title: Virtual Nascom url: http://www.nascomhomepage.com/#Virtual%20Nascom platform: Multiplatform text: Nascom emulator for Unix/X11 and DOS links: - title: All things Nascom, Gemini and MAP-80 url: HTTP://WWW.80BUS.COM text: A complete archive for 80 BUS Systems - title: MIXTEL - Nascom.info url: http://www.mixtel.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nascgem/index.html text: Great Nascom history and info - title: Nascom Nostalgia url: http://www.myplace.nu/nascom/ text: Excellent ressource with info, software and documentations - title: The Nascom Home Page url: http://www.nascomhomepage.com/ text: Wow, you want to go there. Info, links ,software, documentations and more ! comments: - author: Ulf Wennström (Sweden) date: Friday 6th February 2015 text: I bought my kit at Hobby Data in Sweden 79. Worked hard whole summer (just started high school). My grandfather was a carpenter and made me a wooden case for it and the keyboard. Learned to program Z80 and hand assembler. Many notebooks with mnemonics and hex-code. Built 8k of RAM, bought ZEAP Assembler. Wrote a BASIC interpreter. And ever since that time have I worked with product development. I''m glad NASCOM taught me a profession. A computer a student could afford. - author: Paul Thomas (UK) date: Monday 26th November 2012 text: I remember building one of these while at college learning to become a TV engineer. It got me interested in computers and led to me working for the same college (I''m still there after 24 years!). We had 8 of these which we used for microprocessor $ control systems courses. They were mounted in 2U rack cases and expanded to 16K. I was so impressed with them that I built one for myself. The one problem I had was with the siting of the keyboard cable which would produce spurious characters until re-routed away from the power supply. I still fondly remember programming in assembler on these machines. - author: Nick Burnard (UK) (UK) date: Thursday 27th September 2012 text: |- $$ Was I only only person to make use of the 8 bytes of "spare" ram at the end of each display line? No, I remember that well. Often these days, when writing some code and allocating Mbs to a memory array without a thought I think back to those days when every byte counted. - author: Jim Franklin (England) date: Monday 2nd July 2012 text: |- Like Frank Burgum, I bought mine from Henry''s Radio, although a little later in december 1979.\ Mine too grew$ 64kb of ram, and a 20mA loop 110 baud teletype printer! It was a great system at the time, and only having memory from $0c80 to $fff and a stack that went down from $fff made things interesting to say the least! It made developing code an artform. Was I only only person to make use of the 8 bytes of "spare" ram at the end of each display line? - author: Derek Jennings (UK) date: Friday 8th April 2011 text: |- I got my Nascom 1 in 1978 as a kit. It was a great way to learn about microcomputers because quite a number of the TTL chips were defective and I had to fault find through the logic circuits for weeks before it worked. I mounted it in an Apple II case and was dead proud of it. Over time I added an extra 32k of RAM (Yes k) mounted on two PCBs on an expansion bus, and an external cassette tape interface. Everything had to be programmed in assembler. I did not even have BASIC.\ Building that Nascom was the smartest thing I ever did. I learned such a lot that came in useful in my career. - author: Frank Burgum (U.K.) date: Tuesday 28th October 2008 text: I bought a Nascom 1 kit from Henry''s Radio in the Edgeware Road in December 1978 or Jan 1979 (I remember it was snowing!). Over the next few years it grew an S100 bus cardframe, 40KB of RAM, a cassette interface, then a floppy disk interface, then a home-made DOS with Microsoft 8K Basic, and eventually CP/M. All home made and wire-wrapped on the kitchen table except for the S100 expander. Hours of fun, learned an awful lot about operating systems. related: - /museum/lucas-nascom-2 - /museum/lucas-nascom-3 oc_id: 814 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230530214032/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=814 date: '2023-05-30' --- The Nascom 1 was the most popular British made computer kit in the U.K. It was an affordable single board Z80 based computer with a keyboard attached by cable. It came as a kit or ready-built. Why Nascom? Because the idea of a low cost computer intended for U.K. hobbysts was originated by an American company called Nasco. However, the board was designed in the U.K. by **Shelton Instruments Ltd** that, later, also designed and sold the [Sig-Net](/museum/shelton-instruments-sig-net/) The minimum configuration featured 2 KB RAM and 1 KB ROM monitor, but the Nascom could be gradually extended into a system that was powerful enough to compete with many home computers of the time, Pet, Apple or Tandy. Actually, the RAM area was divided into two parts: 1 KB for user program and data and 1 KB for storing characters displayed to the television. The ROM monitor provided basic functions: enter program and data, display memory content and processor registers, save and load programs from a tape recorder. A whole range of peripherals and expansions were available from independant suppliers, as well as a vast range of software and many user groups. Several magazines dedicated to the Nascom and its relatives, the Gemini computers, were published. Many languages were available including BASIC, PASCAL, C, FORTH, etc.