Micronix Advert - June 1983

Single board computers - like the Raspberry Pi - are still quite popular, especially with hobbyists as they're often small and have low power requirements.

The fun with this advert is that whilst a modern single board computer might be more-or-less one chip with a few other components, and be no larger than a pack of cards, this one from Micronix - formerly known as Vincelord Ltd - had over 90 chips on it.

It was also was not far short of the size of a piece of A3 paper, although to be fair it was aimed at the system-builder market rather than home builders.

It's for the 80HD single-board computer. The 64K model retailed for £445, or about £2,200 in 2026 money.

Micronix's "32-bit" ESB-1 single-board computer, as advertised in Practical Computing, November 1984

Just over a year later, Micronix had jumped from eight bits to 32 bits, with the release of its Micronix ESB-1 single-board computer.

Except that it's not quite. It used a Motorola 68008 - the same chip as used in Sinclair's ill-fated QL - which actually only had an 8-bit data bus.

This made it much cheaper to build around, as it was possible to use mostly 8-bit support chips, which perhaps explains why the bare board, chips and documentation was available fo only £199, for about £840 in 2026.

That's less than half the cost, in real terms, of the older model.