Lucy (81-110 Motherboard)

Recent History

Lucy is the name I have given the 81-110(no letter) board that surfaced in 2026. It is named after the famous Australopithecus skelton since it is a missing link between the Ferguson Big Board and the first Kaypro II boards.

It was found by Stargeezer in the Huntsville, Alabama area from an estate of multiple Kaypros.

I traveled to Huntsville in June of 2026 to pick up the machine and it now belongs in my collection.

Description

"Lucy" is a 81-110(no letter) board. Note the C21, R37, and R38 are silk screened for components that are not installed. The U88 was intended to be a 16 pin chip but was replaced by the FDC9216 which only has 8 pins so the footprint extends beyond the chip. There are sockets on the board for the chips not present on the 81-110A boards (U7, U40, U. They sockets appear to be originally soldered at manufacturing. Both ROMS appear to be Intel D2816 EEPROMs. On other boards they would usually be EPROMs which are not electronically erasable.

The board's serial number is 1145 which is earlier than 1353 which was the earliest 81-110A board seen. The QC Sticker is dated 26JL82 which is after the three earliest 81-110A boards. The chassis that it is in does not have a serial number but it has a Version 2 small power switch and black handle mount covers implying that it would likely be #3200-3800.

Best Guess at it's History

I think the most likely scenario for it's use would be that Kaypro was trying to fill it's back order of pre-release sales and was running out of the 81-110A motherboards so they decided to put the extra effort into adapting the 81-110 mainboards with a series of bodge wires to be able to support the double density drives.