Holborn 6140 desktop computer

UvA Computer Museum catalogue nr 99.02

This computer is a Dutch product ("Holborn = born in Holland"), consisting of a science-fiction style display/keyboard unit, a processor box with two 8" floppy drives, and a printer. The processor is a Z80 with 64k of address space, using a bank-switching memory management system.
The machine's hardware was designed by H.A. Polak, the console by Vos Industrial Designers. Inside, the console unit is in fact an adapted MicroBee terminal.
The Holborn 6140 runs under CP/M.
(A different model, with a proprietary multi-user operating system, featured a lightpen, as shown in the picture). The Holborn computers were mainly sold to small companies for administration and bookkeeping purposes. Our machine has been used in a university department library.

processor Zilog Z80A, 4 MHz
internal memory 72 k standard, expandable to 220 k
background memory 2.5 MB on two 8" diskettes, more diskettes or 30 MB harddisk optional
operating system Holborn OS or CP/M

The Holborn company has been active only from 1980 to 1983, when it bankrupted. Like most manufacturers of computer systems of original design around the world, it hasn't survived the competition of IBM and the IBM-PC-clone builders. About 200 machines were sold. The price of the full-featured Holborn was about Dfl 30,000 or US$ 10,000 (at the exchange rate of the time).

Our Holborn 6140 computer was donated by Mr. H. Seijlhouwer, Historisch Documentatiecentrum voor het Nederlands Protestantisme, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.