Vintage OSI single board computer with built-in key switches

User avatar
snuci
Vintage computer guy

26 Sep 2015, 15:14

I thought you might find this interesting. It's not necessarily a keyboard but it's a very early "single board computer" or SBC that had a built in keyboard. Previous SBC's had numeric keypads and you entered data in hexidecimal or octal so you only needed 1-9 and A-F plus some other miscellaneous keys.

This is the Ohio Scientific Model 600 known as the "Superboard II" from 1979. You an see the key switches are soldered right to the circuit board so this is not technically a keyboard, I guess. The key switches look like Futaba complicated linear switches?

Here are some pics:
OSI Superboard II key switches - top
OSI Superboard II key switches - top
OSI Superboard key switches - top.jpg (449.99 KiB) Viewed 1027 times
OSI Superboard II key switches - side
OSI Superboard II key switches - side
OSI Superboard key switches - side.jpg (384.46 KiB) Viewed 1027 times
OSI Superboard II - top
OSI Superboard II - top
OSI Superboard II - front.jpg (92.64 KiB) Viewed 1027 times
OSI Superboard II - bottom
OSI Superboard II - bottom
OSI Superboard II - back.jpg (94.21 KiB) Viewed 1027 times

User avatar
Mattr567

28 Sep 2015, 08:54

MX compatible?

User avatar
Chyros

28 Sep 2015, 09:58

Yup, definitely complicated Futabas :) . IIRC, they only just fit MX caps, but it's a very tight fit. Nice board! :)

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