In 1977 computing industry is changing fast. Ohio Scientific Instruments who were making a lot of expansion boards for their 400 single-board computer, called "Superboard", realize that it would be nice to sell all this hardware, all assembled, in a single case, ready to plug and use.
That's what is a Challenger computer, more a concept than a single system. Indeed under the name Challenger came different configurations based around the Superboard system:
- Challenger 65-1k: 6502A CPU, serial interface, 1KB memory for $439 (january 1977)
- Challenger 65-4k: same as 65-1K but with 4KB RAM, for $529 (january 1977)
- Challenger 65V-4k: same as 65-4k but with an OSI 440 Video Board. No need for an expensive terminal. Just plug your keyboard and monitor to this video board and you're ready to go. $675 (january 1977)
- Challenger 68-1k: based on the 6800 CPU with 1k RAM and serial interface. $459 (january 1977)
- Challenger 68-4k: same as above with 4KB RAM and OSI BASIC 4k delivered on paper tape. $529 (january 1977)
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
NAME
Challenger
MANUFACTURER
OHIO Scientific
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1977
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
OSI Basic on some models
KEYBOARD
Mechanical keyboard
CPU
6502A / 6800 depending models
RAM
1KB / 4KB / 16 KB (up to 192 KB)
ROM
up to 16KB
TEXT MODES
16x64
COLORS
optional
SOUND
No
I/O PORTS
serial interface
POWER SUPPLY
110v
PERIPHERALS
many expansions available, including: serial, parallel, tape, floppy drives, A/D converters, memory expansions, graphics card, multi processor
