The Grundy NewBrain is 30

Keyboard?

Given the described history of UK then Holland, I'm curious where the model on Page 1 was destined. It seems to have a French AZERTY keyboard.

Speaking of keyboards, I think people sometimes underestimate the effect they had. I know that for many of my friends one of the major deciding factors for going the BBC Micro route was that it had a "proper" keyboard, not a chiclet-style one.

Sinclair

My recollection of Sinclair in the pre-micro era is that it supplied matchbox radios and cheap but unreliable amplifiers through small ads in Practical Wireless. How odd to learn that the Labour government of the time regarded this as a key industry and therefore a target for nationalisation.

Imagine if it had all worked out as planned, and Britain had a nationalised microcomputer industry! We'd probably still be using hex keypads like the one shown in the article.

Picture - bottom of Page 3

What's in the big box behind the computer that the monitor is standing on?

It really did come too late. The MOS KIM-1 was a similar proposition, okay the New Brain has fully qwerty and looks more finished. But the KIM-1 arrived 6 years earlier and that was a long time back then.

MK14 - not what it seemed

If memory serves the MK14 was actually two development boards from NatSemi which were bolted together to make a complete system! I think the design credit rests with NatSemi rather than any part of the Sinclair/Science in Cambridge groups.

And, at the launch of the NewBrain David Tebbutt and I, then the editor of Computnig Toady, had a 'wait it out' session to see who would get hands on the demo model first. My bladder gave out before his, he nabbed the box and later rang me to confess that the box was actually just a keyboard and display - all the processing had been done 'under the table' by a different computer altogether!

Now, those were the days!

Overheating

I had one, I think it's still in the attic, and the addon box that I think added a disk controller, though I can't really remember. Biggest problem was that it was all 7400 series discrete logic crammed very tightly into the boxes, and used to get VERY hot, to the point where errors would start occurring.

Promise and potential but management handicapped

Basil Smith and Mike Wakefield joined the project after the design was well underway; something I didn't realise until many years later.

The design for the BBC micro was the Newbury NewBrain. The change in software and hardware, particularly adding colour was the result of Acorn actively bidding for the contract. Newbury did not supporting the bidding for the contract and Acorn at least had a working and commercial computer in the Atom. Newbury, then Grundy Business Systems, had only the battery powered Vestic machine with built in ROMS. Management did not want to supply the BBC micro and didn't try to get the contract.

The battery power machine relied upon CMOS components and was never made. The battery module for the Model AD would run for about an hour. Some owners replaced as many of the components, in the AD, as they could and achieved longer battery life.

In 1982 there were plans for modular cases to house the modules and expansion boards. This wasn't happening so the tower shown was made as a stop gap. As even these didn't appear in numbers loans of machines to software companies where supplied with an 'oil rig' tower to support the monitor with floppy disc controller and 96K expansion module in slim brown cases held together by locking keys. The brick at the back was the multiple power supply for four modules (the computer/keyboard module being one of them). This was so over engineered that it would also run a pair of 3.5" floppy drives (in house custom alteration).

Disc controllers and expansion modules were sold in limited numbers. All the components for a production run where supplied but there were hold ups in soldiering the boards. Tradecom battled to get these as the contractor hadn't been paid, but had been making a little return selling completed but untested disc controllers. The same contractor also was sitting on components to built NewBrains - which Tradecom then got completed. Existing customers wanted the expansion boards. New customers were waiting for the arrive of the long promised expansions. It would have cost very little to have turned the stock of components into machine for the Christmas market.

The plug was pulled in August 1983, but heralded the collapse of the other microcomputer companies in in 82/83 leaving Acorn, Sinclair and the late to market Amstrad as games machines with business having moved to the IBM PC.

There were many comments in the press and from people who didn't own a NewBrain about the keyboard. The keys have a full bounce and metal springs mounted on a metal plate. The spacing is exactly the same as on professional typewriters but the keys are straight, not tapered as used on most keyboards at the time. The small return key and short space bar where the only compromise for lack of space. There were many discussions about replacing the caps with ones that filled up the gap between keys so they looked 'proper'.

Cambridge based development gave overoptimistic delivery dates for modules but Teddington marketing gave unrealistic dates. At least they didn't stock pile customer's money months in advance.

Unfriendly

I still have my Newbrain, not that I ever used it except for the PCW review. It had the most unfriendly operating system ever invented (perhaps the 1960s Russian space program may have had something to compete). All I/O was redirectable, which meant that just to type "Hello World!" you first had to open a stream to the display :-(~

Not so fast

One of my friends bought a Newbrain, and I recall that it wasn't really that fast, at least not when it came to graphics. One reason may be that it used real numbers as coordinates rather than integers and allowed arbitrary scaling factors for the coordinates (so you could, for example, define your screen as going from -pi to pi horisontally and from 0 to 1e20 vertically). It did have some (for the time) advanced graphics primitives, including a flood fill (which worked in a way that gave associations to Tron lightcycles).

The keyboard, in spite of its odd look, was actually quite good, as I recall it.

In any case, after I bought a BBC B, my friend sold his Newbrain and bought a BBC too. I dont' think he ever regretted that decision.