ESCO SBC

User wikokim on the forum.classic-computing.de bought this system in 1978/79. He published documents and ROM dumps.

See here for this ‘KIM-1’ like system.

KIM-4 photos

I received photos from Joseph Avins of a KIM-4 motherboard connected to a KIM-1.

Added tot the KIM-1 hardware pages, read more here.

KIM-4 (photo by Joseph Avins)

KIM-4 (photo by Joseph Avins)

RSC-Forth computers

The R6501Q and R65F11 IC’s I acquired are Rockwell parts for single chip computer systems. Well, they contain a lot more than a 6502, like ROM, RAM, I/O.

A couple of pages devoted to these IC’s and RCS-Forth, the Rockwell Single Chip FORTH system are here.

Elektor Junior VIA 6522 German

Found in my archive: the German version of the Elektor Junior VIA 6522 book.

Added tot the Elektor books page.

ZIPtape for KIM-1

Glen Deas sent me an article about the Ziptape cassette interface, 1978, by the late Lew Edwards. Glen made a PCB for it.

The article about the Fast Cassette Interface is part of my CW Moser Assembler/editor package. Scanned by me in 2010 to the file kimfastcassette.pdf and on my website with the CW Moser package for years now .
Glen Deas knew it was designed by Lew Edwards and entered the source in modern assembler format.

John Bell Engineering

The page on John Bell Engineering has been expanded to a page per SBC, to keep the information accessible. See it here.

Glen Deas supplied negatives of 80-153 and the Z80 cards, thanks!

I also added the information I have on Apple ][ cards by John Bell, like the 6522 VIA and A/D cards.

My retro toolchain

Development for my old 8 bit retro SBC’s has become much easier with fast PCs and good tools. All cross development.

What took hours on my KIM-1: load editor form tape -edit source – save on tape (multiple tape files if big) – assemble form tape to tape – load binary from tape – run
can now be done very fast.
Powerful text editors, cross assembler, KIM-1 Simulator, seconds per iteration.

The only slow part remains: me!

More on my favorite toolchain here.

PRDIS, Printing Disassembler

In 1982 I wrote/composed a program to have disassembled code on paper, with page numbers. Read more about it here.

The core routine of the disassembler is the well-known Steve Wozniak/Allen Baum 1976 article A 6502 Disassembler from Apple
The program is a TTY program. I build it with the then current hardware and software of my KIM-1:

  • 32K RAM from $2000
  • Video terminal uppercase 24×32 on the KIM TTY serial in/output
  • A parallel ASCII keyboard connected to the second 6532 RIOT port
  • A serial connected, at 9600 baud, Heathkit H14 matrix printer
  • Dual audio cassette records under motor control
  • MICRO ADE assembler/Editor, extended and with video TTY as output, parallel keyboard as input and could print at the H14 printer

Corsham Bus Extender

Corsham Technologies produces a Bus Extender fot the KIM-1. SImple but so handy.

It is placed beween the external device on Application or Extension Connector and has 44 pin header to attach wires to a breadboard for example.
Only negative I can say about it, tinned edge connectors and not gold plated.

Nice addition to my Reproduction KIM-1s!

MOS KIM-1 Reproduction, white version

Dave Wiliams made a revison of the MOS KIM-1 Reproduction, a white version.

The original green and the new white are for sale at ebay as of January 2023.

More information here.