Bigboard
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Revision as of 23:08, 25 February 2006
Blainster (Talk | contribs)
the Kaypro II circuit board was a copy, not the whole machine
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Blainster (Talk | contribs)
the Kaypro II circuit board was a copy, not the whole machine
Next diff →
Current revision
The Bigboard was a Z80 based single-board computer designed by Jim Ferguson. It provided interfaces for:
- A keyboard
- A CRT with 24 lines by 80 characters
- Two 8" IBM 3740 compatible floppy disk drives.
- Two RS-232 serial ports.
- A parallel Centronics standard printer port
Running the CP/M operating system, the design was a success in the amateur computer scene. It was also sold to Xerox, which used it as a basis for their Xerox 820 desktop computer. The Kaypro II portable computer's circuit board was so similar that some considered it an unlicensed copy.
BigBoard is also a fictional computer program used by Hiro Protagonist to keep track of avatars visiting the Black Sun, a night club in the book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.