Also known as MK14 Type computer kit Units sold 50,000 | Manufacturer Science of Cambridge Introductory price UK£39.95 | |
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Release date 1977; 40 years ago (1977) | ||
The Microcomputer Kit 14, or MK14 was a computer kit sold by Science of Cambridge of the United Kingdom, first introduced in 1977 for UK£39.95, and which eventually sold over 50,000 units.
It used a National Semiconductor SC/MP CPU (INS8060), 128 (expandable to 256) bytes of random access memory (RAM) which was directly expandable to 640 bytes on board and 2170 bytes total. It used an 8 or 9 red light-emitting diode (LED) seven segment display, there was also optional VDU supporting 32×16 text or 64×64 graphics. Input and output was a 20 key keyboard and reset switch, with an optional 128 bytes of RAM and 16 I/O lines available by adding an INS8154N RAM/IO chip. Cassette-based and PROM storage were optional extras, a sound card was not included but a design for one was provided.
The MK14 could address up to 64 KB of memory space by adding a few chips (the NADS address strobe indicated when the most significant 4 bits of address were available to be captured by an external latch); many pioneering home-brew computer magazines such as Personal Computer World, and Practical Electronics carried details of user modifications.