The Grundy Newbrain Model A
The original design for the Grundy Newbrain came from Sinclair Radionics (one of Uncle Clive's earlier companies) the machine had a chequered history after the design was sold to Newbury by the National Enterprise Board to raise much needed cash for the struggling Sinclair Radionics. The machine was in limbo for over two years after it was officially announced by Newbury Laboratories , until it was rescued by the British Technology Group who placed final design and production with the Grundy Group
The Newbrain is a keyboard based unit in two versions (The Model A above and the Model AD Below. The Machine was built around the Z80A processor running at 4MHz with a minimum 2K RAM with up to 20K on board a external expansion unit can take this up to 4M. A 16k BASIC compiler comes as standard.
The keyboard has 62 small keys that are similar to a calculator rather than typewriter style. The outputs include 1Vpp video, UHF TV and an expansion bus. The video display output gives 24 x 40 characters with the possibility of full viewdata / teletext graphics. The Expansion unit can support 2 x 180k floppy disk drives. The Model AD had a built in 16 digit display Pictured below
The Grundy Newbrain Model AD
Advertisement from the June 83 copy of Personal Computer News
New Brain
professional quality and features- -hobby price!
- 40 / 80 character line full screen monitor
-Keyboard with standard key spacing and nice feel
-32k RAM and 29k ROM both expandable
-High resolution graphics. graph plotting etc.
-CP/M and networking capability
-Compact - will fit neatly on your desk or lab bench
-High quality construction - Made in Britain
Finally I waited patiently for several years for information on the Newbrain's power supply unit, I was luckily enough to get an email from Richard Griffiths. A proud owner of a Newbrain model AD, who supplied not only the PSU details but also a copy of the manual and a book called the Newbrain files.
Below is a copy of Richards email as I feel it has some relevant information.
Hi Brian,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Pin-outs for the power supply are as follows: -
* as looking from the back of the computer *
+13.5v no pin +6.5v
unused -12v 0v
-------[plastic bar]--------
6.5v dc @ 1.2A
13.5v dc @ 0.3A
-12v dc @ 0.05A
I could certainly copy the user manual for you. 'The Newbrain Files' by Philip Crookes was a 133 page book published by Vitagraph Ltd. in 1985. As they say, don't judge a book by it's cover - it looks really unprofessional but there's a fair amount of info here including chapters on the OS, I/O, datastreams, CP/M etc. - most of the stuff the user manual neglected. If your interested, I'll copy that too. I haven't got a scanner at the moment so they will have to be photocopied - just give me a little time to do it! No charge as it's nice to find someone so enthusiastic about the old 'brain - one of the most over-looked UK computers.
Send me your postal address and I'll get them to you soon.
The Newbrain was a present for my birthday in 1983. The model AD with the single line display was pushing my parent's budget a bit, so we ordered the Model A for 30 quid less! (can't remember how much it was in total - just under £200 I think). My dad wrote a note on the order form requesting quick delivery as it was for a birthday - we received the Model AD...was that generosity on behalf of Grundy?? No wonder they went bust.
This was a significant improvement over my previous computer - the ZX81. The 640x250 resolution capability was amazing at the time - although slow as hell. There's a great set of graphical commands in the Newbrain Basic to play with, just give them time! Watching the flood fill is a real joy.
Computer magazines of that time seemed to shun it - the 'brain was neither a good games machine nor a fully fledged business machine. I think many people were put off by the keyboard, which looked odd in the photos but in reality was very good.
One point easily overlooked is that this machine is packed full of standard TTL logic devices (it comprises 70 or 80 IC's in total) - no ULA's or ASIC's here - unusual even in 1983. It's worth a careful look under the bonnet, this thing was really nicely put together. It's a dual processor system, utilising a COP uP for I/O management and other housekeeping chores I believe.
There was very little commercial software available for the 'brain, although I did manage to get hold of two games - Newbrain Chess (very good) and Gollum (abysmal). Gollum was a poor rendition of Pacman written in Basic. My Basic programming skills were much improved in my quest to squeeze more speed out of that bloody program - finally forcing me to start some serious machine code programming (all done in hex! - no assembler). Still, it stood me in good stead - I now work as an embedded systems engineer - PC's somehow never appealed in the same way.
All in all a really excellent machine- I wouldn't consider selling it.
BTW, I know I didn't pay for it, but that single line display really was good for nothing.
Look forward to hearing from you.
best regards,
Richard
I have had an unbelievable find, I was fortunate enough to me up with Faruk who owned a collection of New Brain parts, including brand new unopened PCB's, RAM boards Keyboards, Key Switches, spare Keys and Cases and a couple of Disk Controllers and a pair of Drives.
There was even a collection of books and a couple of copies of the demo tape, and a mint and boxed model AD that I sold on behalf of Faruk who in turn gave me all the spares.
Unfortunately there wasn't any cable's tape printer etc. but I have found a source for a suitable plug and have started making Tape leads and printer leads, if you need any spare's leads etc Please contact me at brian@oldcomputers.co.uk