Editing MicroBee (section)

==Kit beginnings==

The computer was released as a kit, with assembly instructions included in ''[[Your Computer (Australian magazine)|Your Computer]]'' magazine, in February 1982.<ref>[http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/1998-August/034665.html Microbee computer], From:Owen Hill Date:24 Aug 1998, Link list on Australian network policy and communications</ref>  After a successful bid for the [[New South Wales Department of Education]] computer tender, the computer was repackaged in a two-tone beige and black case, and sold pre-built. The {{nowrap|16 kB}} [[Read-only memory|ROM]] held the MicroWorld [[BASIC]] interpreter written by Matthew Starr and DGOS (''David Griffiths Operating System'') compatible System Monitor. In addition to the {{nowrap|16 kB ROM,}} there is additional ROM socket for optional programs such as WORDBEE ([[Word processor]]) or EDASM (a Z80 Editor/Assembler that was written by Ron Harris).<ref>[http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1831283 Graphic Word bee user's manual] by Ron Harris and Gordon Rowell, Honeysoft, c1985., National Library of Australia</ref>

Original MicroBees ran at a [[clock speed]] of {{nowrap|2 MHz}}, with a video dot clock of {{nowrap|12 MHz}}, which was sufficient to display {{nowrap|64 × 16 characters}} ({{nowrap|512 × 256 pixels}}) on a modified [[television]] or [[composite monitor]]. The original machines were supplied with {{nowrap|16 or 32 kB}} of [[static RAM]], and stored programs on [[compact cassette|cassette]], using 300 or 1200 [[Baud]] encoding.