The Elektor Junior Computer was a simple

6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small ...

-based microprocessor development board published in the 1980s in the Dutch, German and later French, Spanish, British and Indian versions of '' Elektor/Elektuur'', in the form of a series of articles and four books. It was developed by the German engineer Loys Nachtmann. The books are available in th
Internet Archive
The Junior Computer was a virtual clone of the

KIM-1 The KIM-1, short for ''Keyboard Input Monitor'', is a small MOS Technology 6502, 6502-based single-board computer developed and produced by MOS Technology, MOS Technology, Inc. and launched in 1976. It was very successful in that period, due to ...

, only it did not use the special I/O+ROM chips ( MCS6530) but rather an off-the-shelf 6532 RIOT and a 2708 1K

EPROM An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of programmable read-only memory (PROM) integrated circuit, chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Computer memory that can retrieve stored d ...

. It also had a different physical shape, as it used the Eurocard board, and a 31-pin

DIN connector The DIN connector is an electrical signal connector that was standardized by the (DIN), the German Institute for Standards, in the mid 1950s, initially with three pins for mono, but when stereo connections and gear appeared in the late 1950s, v ...

for I/O and a

DIN 41612 DIN 41612 was a DIN standard for electrical connectors that are widely used in rack based electrical systems. Standardisation of the connectors is a pre-requisite for open systems, where users expect components from different suppliers to operat ...

connector for system expansion. It was delivered as an

electronic kit An electronic kit is a package of electrical components used to build an electronic device. Generally, kits are composed of electronic components, a circuit diagram (schematic), assembly instructions, and often a printed circuit board (PCB ...

or could purchased as two

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a Lamination, laminated sandwich structure of electrical conduction, conductive and Insulator (electricity), insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes ...

s (main board and

seven-segment display A seven-segment display is a display device for Arabic numerals, less complex than a device that can show more characters such as dot matrix displays. Seven-segment displays are widely used in digital clocks, electronic meters, basic calculators, ...

board) only, for components to be installed. As it was much lower in price than an original KIM, many more Junior computers (several thousands) were used in the Netherlands, Germany and France, than original KIM-1s. Later extension boards were developed, and a

BASIC interpreter A BASIC interpreter is an Interpreter (computing), interpreter that enables users to enter and run programs in the BASIC programming language, language and was, for the first part of the microcomputer era, the default Application software, applica ...

was ported. Elektor expansion boards specifically for the Junior were an I/O interface card (including a 6522 VIA, a tape recorder interface and a

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

port), a VDU (

video terminal A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. Most early computers only had a front panel to input or display b ...

) (an improvement of the previous "elekterminal" design), an EPROM and SRAM expansion board, a 16/64 KB

DRAM Dram, DRAM, or drams may refer to: Technology and engineering * Dram (unit), a unit of mass and volume, and an informal name for a small amount of liquor, especially whisky or whiskey * Dynamic random-access memory, a type of electronic semicondu ...

board and EPROM programmer board, and a

floppy disk controller A floppy-disk controller (FDC) is a hardware component that directs and controls reading from and writing to a computer's floppy disk drive (FDD). It has evolved from a discrete set of components on one or more circuit boards to a special-purpo ...

, as well as a dozen smaller boards for small improvements and interfaces.

External links

pictures of the Junior-Computer and several expansion boards

elektuur unofficial Junior computer website

Internet Archive
Early microcomputers