AH5050 floppy disk system for AIM 65

In 1983 the company ABM sold a floppy disk system, Commodore IEC 1541 based, for the AIM 65. It also offered a serial interface for the AIM 65 TTY connection and a parallel port.
The system consists of a PCB with the interfaces, a manual and the AH5050 ROM. The user has to add the Commodore diskdrive and IEC cable.

The 1541 Commodore drive was quite popular in the 80ties for SBCs, since it was affordable, the serial IEC connection simple (one 7406 TTL IC and a couple of I/O lines) and the drive itself intelligent, the host did not have to implement a DOS with low level drivers and file system. It is slow, and has a low capacity, small SBCs like the AIM 65 are more than happy with that
Nowadays floppy drives like the 1541 are like dinosaurs. But the SD2IEC 1541 replacement devices are cheap!

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ESCO added detailed information

wikokom (Willi) posted additional information about his ESCO system.

Also images of his first KIM-1 in a suitcase~ and current KIM-1.

KIM-1, MTU Visable Memory, and Memory Tests

EMUF and MC Die Mikrocomputer-Zeitschrift

The EMUF pages are a tribute to the work of the editing staff of the German magazine MC Die Mikrocomputer-Zeitschrift on SBC’s.

EMUF stands for Einplatinen-Mikrocomputer für Universelle Festprogrammierung.

EMUFs SBC’s are programmable systems, without a monitor program: write a program and store it in an EPROM and run the application type of system. A bit like the modern microcontrollers like the PIC and AVR IC’s and also a bit like the Arduino’s. But with the technology of the 80ties: 8 bit CPU’s like the 65XX and Z80, I/O IC and EPROM and some RAM.

The first EMUF was published in 1981 in the second edition of the magazine. Later called the EMUF6504, since the CPU is the MOS 6504, a stripped version of the 6502.

The EMUF pages are reorganized and enhanced with all articles from the MC magazine, Sonderheft 1 and 2 and the book Mit Computern steuern.

All relevant 6502/AIM/EMUF articles from MC Die Mikrocomputer-Zeitschrift are added to the MC page.

AIM 65 keyboard replica

Ralf (ralf02, forum64.de) obtained a working AIM 65, alas without the keyboard.

So he designed and build one. In his own words:

Wenn ich an den Rechner 24 Volt (für den Drucker) und 5 Volt anlege, startet er schon einmal. Allerdings war leider keine Tastatur dabei. Es gibt zwar Tastatur-Nachbauten, die bei Ebay & Co für sehr viel Geld verkauft werden, aber ich dachte mir, das kann man doch auch selbst machen. Also habe ich mit KiCad eine Platine entworfen, mit Cherry MX Tastern bestückt, “blanke” Tastenkappen von Amazon draufgesetzt und mit dem Brother Etikettendrucker beklebt.

Translated:
When Ralf connected the 24 V (printer) and 5 V, the system started. But the keyboard was missing. Though there are keyboard replicas on ebay , costing quite a lot of money, I decided to build one myself. Kicad for the PCB, Cherry MX keys, blank keycaps and a Brother labelprinter for the lettering.

The result is a quality keyboard that fits the AIM 65 very well. See here the page with photos and design.

KIM-1 PCB replica Eduardo Casino

Eduardo Casino has designed with modern tools, like Kicad and image software Inkscape a PCB for the KIM-1 which is as close as he could get to a Rev D.

Based upon images on the Revisions pages on this site.

See here for the design.

AIM 65 clone updates

Mr Nagano published videos and photos of an early prototype of his AIM 65 clone.

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.