Size about 8.5 inches by 11.

KIM-1 my first computer

The KIM-1, short for Keyboard Input Monitor, was a small 6502-based microcomputer kit developed and produced by MOS Technology, Inc. and launched in 1975. The KIM-1 consisted of a single printed circuit board with all the components on one side. It included three main ICs; the MCS6502 CPU, and two MCS6530 Peripheral Interface/Memory Devices. The MCS6530 "is comprised of a mask programmable 1024 x 8 ROM, a 64 x 8 RAM, two 8 bit bi-directional ports …and a programmable interval timer…" The KIM-1 brochure said "1 K BYTE RAM" The memory was composed of eight 6102 static RAMs (1024 x 1 bits) and the two 64 byte RAMs in the MCS6530s.

Also included were six 7-segment LEDs (like on a calculator) and a 24-key calculator-type keypad. It was programmed in Hexadecimal. Many of the pins of the I/O portions of the 6530s were connected to the connector on the edge of the board (lower left), where they could be used as a serial system for driving a TTY 33-ASR (teletype terminal and paper tape reader/punch). One of these connectors also doubled as the power supply connector, and included analog lines that could be attached to a cassette tape recorder. (Required 12 volts to operate the LM311.)

The KIM-1 was one of the first single-board computers, needing only an external power supply to enable its use as a stand-alone experimental computer. This fact, plus the relatively low cost of getting started, made it quite popular with hobbyists through the late 1970s. Mine cost $225 in 1979.

Video display

The designer of the TV Typewriter, Don Lancaster, developed a low cost video display for the KIM-1. The add-on board would display up to 4000 characters on a TV or monitor. A typical configuration would be 16 lines of 32 upper case only characters. The board had only 10 low cost ICs and used the KIM's memory for the screen storage. The TVT-6 project appeared on the cover on Popular Electronics in July 1977. The complete kit could be ordered from PAiA Electronics for $34.95. Don expanded this design to do color and simple graphics in The Cheap Video Cookbook. I built this and added to the KIM which required a lot of modifications.

At 3 inches long the Arduino does ten times what the KIM-1 will do.
Cost is under $15 in 2009.

SYM-1 my second computer

The SYM-1 was a competitor to the popular MOS Technology KIM-1 system, with which it was compatible to a large extent. Compared to the KIM-1, enhancements included 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 4 kibibytes, an RS-232 serial port, and a "high speed" (185 bytes/second, the KIM-1 supported about 8 bytes/second) audio cassette storage interface. It also featured on-board buffer circuits to ease interfacing to "high voltage or high current" devices.

http://www.oldcomputers.net/kim1.html

http://www.oldcomputers.net/sym-1.html

http://www.6502.org/trainers/synertek/

My Homepage

My E-Mail lewis@sullivan-county.com
Phone: 276-669-0565
You can call me at work at 276-669-9957.

Our textbook will be Electrical Studies for Trades by Stephen L. Herman. (3rd Edition)