Ohio Scientific Advert - April 1981
From Practical Computing
Ohio is now in Berkshire
Acknowledging that the opening line would "upset geographers but delight OEM systems designers", this advert from Ohio Scientific of Aurora in Ohio announced the opening of the company's UK office near Slough in Berkshire, with the company trading as Ohio Scientific (UK) Ltd.
Many US microcomputer companies that were doing reasonable business the UK - at the time the biggest computer market in Europe - would end up opening their own UK branch.
This could be to avoid exchange-rate variability, because of import or export tarrifs, or simply because it was much easier to offer support with a local office.
A few, like SWTPC, Commodore or IBM would even open factories in the UK - which is perhaps one reason why Commodore's PET - built in Eaglescliffe in Stockton-on-Tees and later Slough[1] - was about half the price of the Apple II.
A similar advert from the following month, pointing out that Ohio Scientific had shipped more Winchester-based micros for small businesses thann any other company in the industry. From Practical Computing, May 1981
The advert itself features the company's relatively small box-sized Challenger II series C2-OEM at the right, up to the Challenger III C3-C filing-cabinet-sized multiprocessor micro, featuring three of the popular processors of the day: MOS Technology's 6502, Motorola's 6800 and Zilog's Z80 - all at the same time.
It also points out that the 1.5MHz 6502A executes instructions twice as fast as the 4MHz Z80A, despite the 6502 being nominally about a third of the speed of its rival.
Date created: 13 February 2026
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