[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”1px|||||”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”]<\/p>\n
The SuperElf single-board computer was made by Quest Electronics. It was an improvement of the Netronics Elf and Elf II training boards, also based on the RCA 1802, one of the first RISC microprocessors.<\/p>\n
The board also featured an 1861 video chip that was closely tied to the 1802 to generate a video image of 128\u00d764 dots.<\/p>\n
2, 4 or 6 7-segment Led display could be used. Its hexadecimal keyboard allowed programs to be entered and controlled more efficiently thanks to 8 function keys:
I \u2013 Input
L \u2013 Load mode
R \u2013 Reset
G \u2013 Go (run mode)
W \u2013 Wait (processor clock could be stopped)
M \u2013 enable Monitor ROM
S \u2013 Single step
P \u2013 Protect memory<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”]<\/p>\n
The main board had connections for a speaker (and a circuit to drive the speaker). Sound was entirely software driven as the hardware simply had a single digital output bit (Q) tied to an LED and also to the speaker.<\/p>\n
An optional expansion board could be added, providing serial port (software driven), cassette interface (also software driven), 1 KB ROM monitor, optional 2K tiny basic, 4 KB RAM. 2 S-100 slots where additional static memory or a video board could be used. Along with a Super Monitor, there where two versions of pitman\u2019s tiny basic, one that used the 1861 video chip and another that used a 64 characters x16lines s-100 video board.<\/p>\n
The cassette\u2019s output used the same \u2018Q\u2019 output used for audio on the main board, which meant that you heard all of your data as it was written out to cassette.<\/p>\n
The 9 LEDs along the left side of the keypad indicate the state of the \u2018Q\u2019 output, the current operating mode (Load, Reset, Run, Wait) as well as the current state of the CPU (Fetch, Execute, DMA, Interrupt).<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/super-elf-video.jpg” title_text=”super-elf-video” _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
The 1861 video chip substitute.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/super-elf-video-output.jpg” title_text=”super-elf-video-output” _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
The Starship program running<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||8px|||”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/board.jpg” title_text=”board” _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Mounted it in a little suit case<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1861-replacement.jpg” title_text=”1861-replacement” _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/20220207_200038-scaled.jpg” title_text=”20220207_200038″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”1px|||||”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.3″ _module_preset=”default”] The SuperElf single-board computer was made by Quest Electronics. It was an improvement of the Netronics Elf and Elf II training boards, also based on the RCA 1802, one of the first RISC microprocessors. The board also featured an 1861 video chip that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-single-board-computers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1823,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions\/1823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagevibe.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}