Limrose Advert - November 1978

Limrose Electronics was founded in May 1971 by Dr Ravi Raizada as a seller of electronic logic tutors which taught how basic logic gates operated^[1]. It went on to release the MTP8080 Microtutor - a teaching and development system based on Intel's 8080 - in 1976.

The LMC 6800-2 from Limrose's Microprocessor Division, of Northwich in Cheshire, was launched at the end of 1978^[2] and appears to the the company's second version of its Motorola 6800-based micro.

It's following the tutororial and teaching theme of its predecessors as it looks very much aimed at the development, school and laboratory environment with its 19" rack-mounting design.

Limrose Electronics' Microtutor 8080, released in the mid 1970s and still for sale in 1978. From Personal Computer World, July 1978

The LMC 6800-2 seems to have been derived from Motorola's EXORciser development system for that company's 6800 processor, as it shares the same 86-pin EXORciser bus^[3], and possibly a version of Motorola's EXbug, here renamed to LIMBUG.

Its target of the developers' market seems apparent with its particular list of features, including comprehensive machine-code debugging facilities and an "almost foolproof" crash-proof BASIC in ROM.

It even had a built-in logic analyser - useful for checking state at the very lowest processor levels - called "The Trap", which could store up to 250 machine-code cycles for later inspection.

It retailed for £370 plus VAT in kit form, which is around £3,110 in 2025.

Limrose survived as Limrose Group Limited right up until 2022^[4].