| Description | |
| Manufacturer | Ohio Scientific |
| Model | C4P |
| Date Announced | 1979 |
| Date Canceled | 1981 (with sale of company) |
| Number Produced | Tens of thousands |
| Country of Origin | USA |
| Price | $1,700 (system with floppy drive) |
| Current Value | $300+ |
| Specifications | |
| Processor | MOS 6502 |
| Speed | 2 MHz |
| RAM | 8K-48K |
| ROM | 8K BASIC and Bootstrap/monitor |
| Storage | Cassette or 5.25" floppy" |
| Expansion | External devices |
| Bus | N/A |
| Video | Composite video out, 16 color, 32 lines x 64 characters |
| I/O | Cassette IO, Parallel, Serial, |
| OS Options | Proprietary OSI OS 65D |
| Notes | The OSI Challenger line used a faster version of the MOS 6502 than its competition. This extra speed didn't help the OSI in the market, however, and the company eventually faltered to stiff competition from Apple and Commodore. |
| Related Items in Collection | Manuals, some disks. |
| Related Items Wanted | Additional software. |
The OSI C4P in my collection is the MF model (for Micro-Floppy) that came with 24K or RAM and the floppy drive.
This system is partially functional and boots to the "monitor" prompt of H/D/M. D should start the disk drive and M should enter the monitor but neither works at the moment. I suspect a RAM error but will have to dig deeper to be sure.
This system came with a couple of binders full of documentation and software.
Included was the C4P tutorial. Unfortunately disk 2 is missing.
Along with the boot disks there are a bunch of Aardvark software disks.
The rear of the unit shows a bunch of ports and connections.
The inside of the disk drive shows it to be a fairly straightforward unit.
The system, on the other hand, is far more involved with several boards stacked into the small space.
(Submitted September 17, 2009 12:40:46 by Peter Sanders)
I think I have some of the drive pads that used to be placed on the other side of the disk drive head to help with reading the disk data. If I do still have them do you want them along with an old OSI 5v power supply?
Kind regards
Peter
(Submitted June 10, 2009 17:16:33 by xsoliman)
In the UK, the the OSI Superboard was 'copied'? and sold as the Compukit UK101. It was my first computer. Didnt have a disk drive
(Submitted November 4, 2008 13:45:11 by Mike Pennock)
I have a one of the OSI that was a later model. It has 32k memory with a 1/2 hight disk drive attached. When OSI was going out of business, I obtain the protype board on the system that was for the color monitor. I have all of the manuals and disk for the system.
(Submitted March 28, 2008 15:37:36 by Steve Gray)
I noticed your OSI C4P doesn't boot... first thing to check is that the CAPS LOCK key is down as the H/D/M? prompt is looking for a capital D!
http://ca.geocities.com/sjgray@rogers.com/OSI/ind ex.html
Steve