Ron Nelson

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Ronald (Ron) Nelson, an American electrical engineer, microcomputer chess pioneer, and Engineering Vice President for Excalibur Electronics, since 2010 in retirement. In 1976 he already developed a chess program for an Altair 8800 Microcomputer with an Intel 8080 CPU. Coincidentally, his friend was secretary at Fidelity Electronics owned by Sidney Samole, who just had the idea to build a dedicated chess computer and was looking for a programmer and engineer. Ron got immediately hired by Samole, and they constructed and build several Fidelity Chess Challenger Prototypes, three working models and four non-working models. Sidney Samole decided to promote their brainchild at Chicago's Consumer Electronics Show in January 1977

=Fidelity= Ron Nelson wrote the first programs, and was also Fidelity's Hardware engineer. After the huge success of the Z80 based Fidelity Chess Challenger 7, which sold about 600,000 units, the company along with Ron Nelson moved from Chicago, Illinois to Miami Florida in January 1981. When Dan and Kathe Spracklen were hired by Samole in 1980 to adopt their much stronger Sargon III program as Fidelity's flagship, Nelson focused on hardware aspects and presumely I/O and system programming of the machines. In the 80s from time to time, a Fidelity model appeared with his Z80 program.

Director of Engineering: Ron Nelson

=Excalibur= After Hegener & Glaser acquired Fidelity Electronics in 1989, Ron Nelson continued computer chess engineering, as well as computer chess programming in Sidney's son, Shane Samole's company Excalibur Electronics. Every chess game produced by Excalibur Electronics contains a Nelson programs.

=See also=
 * Chess Challenger
 * Excalibur Electronics
 * Fidelity Electronics
 * Shane Samole
 * Sidney Samole
 * Dan Spracklen
 * Kathe Spracklen

=Forum Posts=
 * Ron Nelson Ever Copied, Used, Cloned the Spracklen? by Fernando Villegas, Hiarcs Forum, July 05, 2014
 * Re: Ron Nelson Ever Copied, Used, Cloned the Spracklen? by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 21, 2015
 * Excalibur Electronics by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 22, 2015
 * Excalibur Electronics by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 22, 2015
 * Consumer Computer Chess History Trivia by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 22, 2015 » David Kittinger, WMCCC 1981, Mark Taylor
 * Re: Excalibur Electronics by Mike Watters, Hiarcs Forum, December 23, 2015
 * Ron Nelson by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 23, 2015
 * Ron Nelson by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 23, 2015 » Excalibur
 * Ron Nelson by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 23, 2015 » Fidelity Electronics, Sidney Samole
 * Re: Ron Nelson by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 24, 2015 » Eric White
 * Re: Ron Nelson by Mike Watters, Hiarcs Forum, December 28, 2015
 * Re: Ron Nelson by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 29, 2015
 * Re: Ron Nelson by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 29, 2015
 * Fidelity and Fast Hardware by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 31, 2015
 * Ron Nelson & Talking Chess Computers by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, January 02, 2016
 * Re: Ron Nelson & Talking Chess Computers by Steve Blincoe, Hiarcs Forum, January 02, 2016
 * Ron Nelson and H & G Projects by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, January 02, 2016
 * Re: Ron Nelson by Chessmaster Ireland, Hiarcs Forum, January 02, 2016
 * Re: Ron Nelson Chess Challenger 10 by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, January 24, 2016 » Cassia Chess Mate


 * Ron Nelsons dedicated chess computers by mclane, Hiarcs Forum, April 26, 2015
 * Even More about Nelson.. by Fernando Villegas, Hiarcs Forum, May 21, 2015
 * Excalibur Chess Products Ron Nelson designed/programmed by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, January 05, 2016
 * Chess Products Ron Nelson designed/programmed by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, January 11, 2016


 * Ron Nelson maybe will come here... by Fernando Villegas, CCC, January 05, 2016
 * Re: Ron Nelson maybe will come here... by Ron Nelson, CCC, February 03, 2016


 * Fidelity Chess Challenger 3 Components by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, February 03, 2016

=External Links=
 * Fidelity Electronics from chesscomputers.org
 * Nelson, Ron – Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)

=References= Up one level