Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.

Submission Preview

Link to Story

My 1976 KIM-1

Accepted submission by owl at 2023-11-06 15:12:52
Hardware

owl [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://blog.jgc.org/2023/11/my-1976-kim-1.html [jgc.org]

Some years ago I wrote about programming a KIM-1 in 1985. By that time the KIM-1 was old, and definitely not state of the art. After all, it was released in 1976.

But it's a machine I enjoyed programming (which required punching in code via the hex keypad, or, if you were lucky, connecting a terminal (via a 20mA current loop designed to talk to an actual Teletype) to it and using the very basic monitor program). The KIM-1 could also interface to a paper-tape reader/punch and a cassette for storing and loading programs.

I have a tiny collection of machines that matter in my personal computing history: a Sharp MZ-80K, a Research Machines 380Z, a Research Machines 480Z, my original BBC Micro and a KIM-1 (that's a picture of my machine above). The (fully working) KIM-1 was made in 1976 and is serial number 2,793. It's still sitting in its original packaging:

Original Submission