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List Of Early Microcomputers
This is a list of early microcomputers sold to hobbyists and developers. These microcomputers were often sold as "DIY" kits or pre-built machines in relatively small numbers in the mid-1970s. These systems were primarily used for teaching the use of microprocessors and supporting peripheral devices, and unlike home computers were rarely used with pre-written application software. Most early micros came without alphanumeric keyboards or displays, which had to be provided by the user. RAM was quite small in the unexpanded systems (a few hundred bytes to a few kilobytes). By 1976 the number of pre-assembled machines was growing, and the 1977 introduction of the "Trinity" of Commodore PET, TRS-80 and Apple II generally marks the end of the "early" microcomputer era, and the advent of the consumer home computer era that followed. Discrete logic Before the advent of microprocessors, it was possible to build small computers using small-scale integrated circuits (ICs), where each IC con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microcomputer
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB). Microcomputers became popular in the 1970s and 1980s with the advent of increasingly powerful microprocessors. The predecessors to these computers, mainframes and minicomputers, were comparatively much larger and more expensive (though indeed present-day mainframes such as the IBM System z machines use one or more custom microprocessors as their CPUs). Many microcomputers (when equipped with a keyboard and screen for input and output) are also personal computers (in the generic sense). An early use of the term ''personal computer'' in 1962 predates microprocessor-based designs. ''(See "Personal Computer: Computers at Companies" reference below)''. A ''microcomputer'' used as an embedded control system may have no human-readable input ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intel System Development Kit
Each time Intel launched a new microprocessor, they simultaneously provided a System Development Kit (SDK) allowing engineers, university students, and others to familiarise themselves with the new processor's concepts and features. The SDK single-board computers allowed the user to enter object code from a keyboard or upload it through a communication port, and then test run the code. The SDK boards provided a system monitor ROM to operate the keyboard and other interfaces. Kits varied in their specific features but generally offered optional memory and interface configurations, a serial terminal link, audio cassette storage, and EPROM program memory. Intel's Intellec development system could download code to the SDK boards. In addition, Intel sold a range of larger-scale development systems which ran their proprietary operating systems and hosted development tools assemblers and later compilers targeting their processors. These included the Microcomputer Development System (MDS), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark-8
The Mark-8 is a microcomputer design from 1974, based on the Intel 8008 CPU (which was the world's first 8-bit microprocessor). The Mark-8 was designed by Jonathan Titus, a Virginia Tech graduate student in Chemistry. After building the machine, Titus decided to share its design with the community and reached out to ''Radio-Electronics'' and ''Popular Electronics''. He was turned down by ''Popular Electronics'', but ''Radio-Electronics'' was interested and announced the Mark-8 as a 'loose kit' in the July 1974 issue of ''Radio-Electronics'' magazine. Project kit The Mark-8 was introduced as a 'build it yourself' project in ''Radio-Electronicss July 1974 cover article, offering a US$5 booklet containing circuit board layouts and DIY construction project descriptions, with Titus himself arranging for $50 circuit board sets to be made by a New Jersey company for delivery to hobbyists. Prospective Mark-8 builders had to gather the various electronics parts themselves from various ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SCELBI
SCELBI was an early model of microcomputer based on the Intel 8008 processor. The company SCELBI (derived from SCIentific-ELectronics-BIology) Computer Consulting in 1973, by Nat Wadsworth. The SCELBI 8H was marketed in 1974 and was delivered either as an assembled unit or as a kit, with five basic circuit boards and provision for memory expansion to 16 kB (16,384 bytes). The company offered input/output devices including a keyboard, teleprinter interface, alphanumeric oscilloscope interface, and a cassette tape interface for data storage. The basic system only used a front panel with 11 switches and LEDs for input and output. The company also offered a version of the BASIC programming language that ran on the platform, called SCELBAL. Optional modules for strings and transcendental functions allowed the system to operate in small memory configurations. SCELBAL was sold in book format, allowing it to be used on any similar 8008 or 8080 based platform. The initial model 8H wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ZX81
The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cost introduction to home computing for the general public. It was hugely successful; more than 1.5 million units were sold. In the United States it was initially sold as the ZX-81 under licence by Timex. Timex later produced its own versions of the ZX81: the Timex Sinclair 1000 and Timex Sinclair 1500. Unauthorized ZX81 clones were produced in several countries. The ZX81 was designed to be small, simple, and above all, inexpensive, with as few components as possible. Video output is to a television set rather than a dedicated monitor. Programs and data are loaded and saved onto compact audio cassettes. It uses only four silicon chips and a mere 1 KB of memory. It has no power switch or moving parts, with the exception of a VHF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Kit
An electronic kit is a package of electrical components used to build an electronic device. Generally, kits are composed of electronic components, a circuit diagram (schematic), assembly instructions and often a printed circuit board (PCB) or another type of prototyping board. There are two types of kit. Some build a single device or system. Other types used for education demonstrate a range of circuits. Theses will include a solderless construction board of some type, such as: * Components mounted in plastic blocks with side contacts, that are held together in a base, e.g. Denshi blocks * Springs on a card board, the springs trap wire leads or component leads, such as Philips EE electronic experiment kits. These are a cheap and flexible option * Professional type prototyping boards, ( breadboards) into which component leads are inserted, following documentation of the "kit". The first type of kits, those for the construction of a single device, normally use a PCB on which co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intel 8085
The Intel 8085 ("''eighty-eighty-five''") is an 8-bit microprocessor produced by Intel and introduced in March 1976. It is software-binary compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080 with only two minor instructions added to support its added interrupt and serial input/output features. However, it requires less support circuitry, allowing simpler and less expensive microcomputer systems to be built. The "5" in the part number highlighted the fact that the 8085 uses a single +5-volt (V) power supply by using depletion-mode transistors, rather than requiring the +5 V, −5 V and +12 V supplies needed by the 8080. This capability matched that of the competing Z80, a popular 8080-derived CPU introduced the year before. These processors could be used in computers running the CP/M operating system. The 8085 is supplied in a 40-pin DIP package. To maximise the functions on the available pins, the 8085 uses a multiplexed address/data (AD0-AD7) bus. However, an 8085 circu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SYM-1
The SYM-1 is a single board "trainer" computer produced by Synertek Systems in 1975. It was designed by Ray Holt. Originally called the VIM-1 (Versatile Input Monitor), that name was later changed to SYM-1. The SYM-1 is a close copy of the popular MOS Technology KIM-1 system, with which it is compatible to a large extent. Compared to the KIM-1, enhancements include the ability to run on a single +5 volt power supply, an enhanced monitor ROM, three configurable ROM/EPROM sockets, RAM expandable on board to , an RS-232 serial port, and a "high speed" (, the KIM-1 supports about 8 bytes/second) audio cassette storage interface. It also features on-board buffer circuits to ease interfacing to "high voltage or high current" devices. One capability of the SYM-1 is its ability to allow an oscilloscope to be added to provide a 32 character display under software control. As explained in Chapter 7 of the "SYM Reference Manual", the vertical input, ground and trigger input of the oscillosc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AIM-65
The Rockwell AIM-65 computer is a development computer introduced in 1978 based on the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor. The AIM-65 is essentially an expanded KIM-1 computer. Available software included a line-oriented machine code monitor, BASIC interpreter, assembler, Pascal, PL/65, and FORTH development system. Available hardware included a floppy disk controller and a backplane for expansion. Features Rockwell advertised the $375 AIM-65, with 1K RAM, as an "easy, inexpensive omputer... for learning, designing, work or just fun". Standard software included the system console monitor software in ROM, called Advanced Interactive Monitor. It featured an assembler, disassembler, setting and viewing memory and registers, starting execution of other programs and more. Single stepping was made possible using non-maskable interrupt (NMI). The command prompt was the less-than sign "". If the thermal printer was turned on, this would be output on a single line. The monitor incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motorola 6800
The 6800 ("''sixty-eight hundred''") is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor designed and first manufactured by Motorola in 1974. The MC6800 microprocessor was part of the Motorola 6800 family, M6800 Microcomputer System (latter dubbed ''68xx'') that also included serial and parallel interface integrated circuit, ICs, RAM, read-only memory, ROM and other support chips. A significant design feature was that the M6800 family of ICs required only a single five-volt power supply at a time when most other microprocessors required three voltages. The M6800 Microcomputer System was announced in March 1974 and was in full production by the end of that year. "Motorola's M6800 microcomputer system, which can operate from a single 5-volt supply, is moving out of the sampling stage and into full production." The small-quantity price of the MC6800 is . The MC6820 PIA cost . The 6800 has a 16-bit address bus that can directly access of memory and an 8-bit bi-directional data bus. It has 72 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MEK6800D2
The MEK6800D2 was a Microprocessor development board, development board for the Motorola 6800 microprocessor, produced by Motorola in 1976. It featured a keyboard with hexadecimal keys and an LED display, but also featured an RS-232 asynchronous serial interface for a Teleprinter, Teletype or other terminal. Data and programs could be loaded from and saved to an audio cassette tape. There was an on-board Machine code monitor, monitor program called ''JBUG (analogous to an operating system on a modern computer)'' fitted in a 1K byte ROM, and the maximum RAM capacity on board was 512 bytes, but this could be expanded via the Motorola ''EXORciser'' computer bus interface. The hardware consisted of two circuit boards. The keyboard-display module contained a 16 key (hexadecimal) data entry section, and eight function keys labeled M, E, R, G, V, N, L, and Pl along with a 6 hex digit LED display. The keyboard-display board connected to the microcomputer module by a 50-conductor ribbon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011. Motorola Solutions is the legal successor to Motorola, Inc., as the reorganization was structured with Motorola Mobility being spun off. Motorola Mobility was acquired by Lenovo in 2014. Motorola designed and sold wireless network equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers. Motorola's home and broadcast network products included set-top boxes, digital video recorders, and network equipment used to enable video broadcasting, computer telephony, and high-definition television. Its business and government customers consisted mainly of wireless voice and broadband systems (used to build private networks), and, public safety communicat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
