The Compukit UK101 microcomputer (1979)[1] is a kit[2] clone of the Ohio Scientific Superboard II single-board computer, with a few enhancements for the UK market - notably replacing the 24×24 (add guardband kit to give 32×32) screen display with a more useful 48×16 layout working at UK video frequencies.
The August, September, October and November 1979 issues carried the four parts of the article, by Dr. Anthony A Berk.
[8] Later issues of the magazine contained information on modifications and additions to the machine, including a series of articles on building an expansion unit.
[9] Kits of parts for building the machine were available from Compukit Ltd. / CompShop Ltd. of 14 Station Road, Barnet, Hertfordshire.
BASIC programs typically poll for real-time keyboard input by using the PEEK and POKE commands at that address.
This allows a full RS-232 port to be implemented, with the addition of a few extra components and minor modifications to existing jumpers on the board.
One could attach a dual floppy disk controller (5.25") and a memory expansion card (40K max) to allow faster and reliable save/load of programs/data.
A sound card became available, built around the General Instrument AY-3-8910, which together with a Peripheral Interface Adapter (PIA) WDC 65C21 chip, gave the UK101 audio abilities.
A disk operating system was used to provide file storage capability but this resided in RAM and so reduced the available program space.