Pre-Pet Commodore micro up for grabs on eBay
Kim-1 could be yours
Readers, you now have 12 hours or so to bid for a slice of computing history: a Kim-1 single-board computer, released some 36 years ago by the company that would become a key part of Commodore.
Kim stood for Keyboard Input Monitor, and the device, based on the MOS 6502, was the equivalent of the Sinclair MK14 or the Acorn System 1.
Source: Lawrence Bezuska
Chip maker MOS produced the board - complete with CPU, memory, calculator-style Hex keyboard and six-digit LED readout - to encourage coders to get programming its new microprocessor.
Commodore acquired MOS in 1976-77 and used the board, designed by the legendary Chuck Peddle, as the basis for its first micro, the Pet.
Leap forward 36 years, and one of the Commodore-branded Kim-1 units is on offer on eBay. Bidding is up to $460, but expect it to go higher given how old and rare the Kim-1 is.
Source: Wikimedia
Ads from the time show you get a whopping 1KB of Ram and 2KB of Rom for the $245 you'd have paid for the Kim-1 back then. Shipping was $4.50 extra. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Vaguely familiar
The OU one was probably a DESMOND: Digital Electronic System Made Of Nifty Devices and used on Technology Faculty courses. There was also a series of Hektor computers (Home Experiment Kit) of which the first was a single board job like the Kim-1, the second had a keyboard and the third was more like a BBC Model B.
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=817
Re: I actually used one for a University assignment
Looks a lot like the ones they had in Durham. I think they were as pictured here.
They were used to teach machine code to 1st year undergraduates in 1979/80 at least. No big deal for those of us who'd already programmed HP calculators. At the time they seemed kind of quaint, although they were presumably quite new. It was just that things were moving pretty quickly.
They also had Acorn Atom machines about, which were much more interesting than these things at the time.
Takes me back to '77
When I arrived for the start of a Computing and Electronics degree in 1977, each of us was presented with a KIM-1 in bits. We had to assemble it, before we could start classes in assembly programming.
Plus ca change: Now I am doing the same thing for fun with Arduino's !
Defo used an AIM-65
at Strathclyde Uni during the '80s. IMSC, the electronics club had a cased-up KIM, too. Didn't you have to hand-enter an interrupt vector before using the monitor ROM (for display refresh or something)?
Good memories from a simpler time.
