Ohio C2-8P: An exceptional value in personal computing

Released at about the same time as the company's much larger (and more expensive) Challenger III range, the II was aimed more at the small-business and personal end of the market - as seen by the cassette interface and domestic television in use in the advert.

It shipped with a reduced 8K BASIC in ROM, and 4K of user RAM. It was also apparently the only home computer at the time that could be expanded to support a hard disk drive. Ohio had been the first company to market a micro with a disk drive, back in 1977.

[picture: ohio_price_list.webp|Ohio's extensive range of machine configurations, including the C2-8P at $799, or about [[540|1978]] in [[now]]]

Ohio offered an extensive range of microcomputers, including the budget-friendly offering of its original bare-board Superboard II - with video and audio interfaces and BASIC in ROM for only $279, which is about [[190|1978]] in [[now]], or the 1P - a Superboard in a case with a power supply for only $70 more.  

[picture: ohio_superboardII_byte_dec78.webp|Ohio's Superboard II - the basis of many of the company's microcomputers. From Byte, December 1978]

There was also the C2-4P, called the "professional portable" - portable only in the sense that you could unplug it and it was light enough to carry around - and the C2-8P of the advert at $799, or about [[540|1978]] in [[now]].

The top-of-the-range was the fridge-sized C3-B - a 74MB Winchester hard-disk version with 48K RAM and dual floppy drives - at $11,090 - about [[7400|1978]] now.

Ohio was sold to M/A-COM in 1980, and after a series of further sales, ended up being owned by Sweden's Dataindustrier AB - the company which produced the <a href="pcw_1980-06-00_001_luxor">Luxor ABC80</a>.
