National Semiconductor Introkit

The Introkit was launched in 1976 and appeared to be very popular. It was the first all-in-one computer everyone could afford and get knowledge about computers. The basic version was really minimalist: one SC/MP (or "Scamp") microprocessor, one 512-byte ROM containing a monitor program and 256 bytes of RAM for user's programs.

The system was designed to connect to a Teletype but very few hobbyist could afford this massive and expensive equipment. Thus, National Semiconductor released an optional display kit which was comprised of an add-on card that fitted onto the main board, and a modified calculator for keyboard and display. Because of this Introkit needed a dual voltage power supply. Once everything soldered and wire-wrapped, the Introkit was a complete computer and an efficient learning tool. The novice programmer could enter, modify and run programs and thus learn all hardware and software basic concepts of any computing system.

Several of these kits and other SC/MP machines, were connected to larger computers thanks to the unique and advanced ability of the SC/MP CPU to completely share its system bus with other processors, and thus run smoothly in a multiprocessor environment.

Chris Curry took the Introkit as a starting point to design the MK-14 training board, first Sinclair computer.