The Mark-8 is a microcomputer design from 1974, based on the

Intel 8008 The Intel 8008 ("''eight-thousand-eight''" or "''eighty-oh-eight''") is an early byte-oriented microprocessor designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC), implemented and manufactured by Intel, and introduced in April 1972. It is an 8-bit CP ...

CPU (which was the world's first 8-bit microprocessor). The Mark-8 was designed by Jonathan Titus, a

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

graduate student in Chemistry. After building the machine, Titus decided to share its design with the community and reached out to ''

Radio-Electronics ''Radio-Electronics'' was an American electronics magazine that was published under various titles from 1929 to 2003. Hugo Gernsback, sometimes called the father of science fiction, started it as ''Radio-Craft'' in July 1929. The title was changed ...

'' and ''

Popular Electronics ''Popular Electronics'' was an American magazine published by John August Media, LLC, and hosted at TechnicaCuriosa.com. The magazine was started by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company in October 1954 for electronics hobbyists and experimenters. It soo ...

''. 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.Radio-Electronics; July 1974 issue.
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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 A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich struc ...

layouts and

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

construction project descriptions, with Titus himself arranging for $50 circuit board sets to be made by a

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

company for delivery to hobbyists. Prospective Mark-8 builders had to gather the various electronics parts themselves from various sources. A couple of thousand booklets and some one-hundred circuit board sets were eventually sold. The Mark-8 was introduced in ''R-E'' as "Your Personal Minicomputer" as the word 'microcomputer' was still far from being commonly used for microprocessor-based computers. In their announcement of their computer kit, the editors placed the Mark-8 in the same category as the era's other 'minisize' computers. As quoted by an Intel official publication, "The Mark-8 is known as one of the first computers for the home."

Influences

Although not very commercially successful, the Mark-8 prompted the editors of ''

'' magazine to consider publishing a similar but more easily accessible microcomputer project, and just six months later, in January 1975, they went through with their plans announcing the Altair 8800. According to a 1998 Virginia Tech University article, Titus' Mark-8 microcomputer now resides in the Smithsonian Institution's "Information Age" display Pioneers in microprocessor technology, Virginia Tech. Magazine, 1998
/ref>

References

{{Reflist

External links

Mark-8 Minicomputer
– an original Mark-8, restored to working condition
A Mark-8 Experience
– Terry Ritter's detailed memoir of building and running a Mark-8 in 1974.
Collection of old analog and digital computers at www.oldcomputermuseum.com

Jonathan A. Titus, Microcomputer Pioneer

Titus and the Mark-8, Bit-by-Bit, a Haverford College Publication
Early microcomputers 8-bit computers

Project kit

Influences

See also

References

External links