Nascom 1

The Nascom 1 was a British single-board microcomputer kit created for enthusiasts who wanted direct access to a capable Z80 system. Unlike many contemporary kits, it included a full keyboard, character video output, cassette interface and parallel I/O on the main board.

Owners assembled the machine by hand, soldering thousands of joints before adding their own case, power supply and display. Its open documentation and expansion bus encouraged a lively ecosystem of home-built hardware and software.

Notable Features

• Full keyboard and video interface were included on the single circuit board.
• The kit exposed serial and parallel interfaces for experimentation.
• Owners constructed their own enclosure, power supply and storage setup.

Historical Significance

• One of the most influential early British microcomputer kits.
• Offered a far more complete interactive system than the hexadecimal keypad and LED displays common in 1977.

Collector’s Notes

• Build quality varies because each kit was assembled by its owner.
• Original keyboard parts, NAS-BUG ROM and construction manual are valuable parts of a complete example.

Specifications

Technical Information
Name	Nascom 1
Manufacturer	Nascom
Launched	Tuesday, November 1, 1977
Country	United Kingdom
CPU	Zilog Z80 at 1 or 2 MHz
Units Sold
Operating System	NAS-BUG monitor; machine code and optional cassette-loaded languages
I/O	RS-232/TTY, RF/video and two 8-bit parallel ports
Keyboard	Full alphanumeric keyboard supplied with kit
Storage	300-baud cassette interface
Sound	Simple programmable output through system hardware
Graphics	Character display generated on board
Display	Video output to monitor or modified television
ROM	1KB NAS-BUG monitor; 2KB with later monitor
RAM	2KB on board; approximately 850 bytes normally free
CPU Speed	1 or 2 MHz