back to article Pre-Pet Commodore micro up for grabs on eBay

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 …

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  1. Chemist

    I remember a review ..

    in Practical Electronics or Wireless World where they jokes that there were a range of peripherals coming along like parallel ports, serial ports, memory expansion and space shuttles - I think MOS had some connection with Rockwell who were the main contractor for the shuttle.

    1. JonHendry

      Re: I remember a review ..

      Rockwell had their own, similar micro, the AIM-65. Perhaps you're thinking of that one.

      1. Chemist

        Re: I remember a review ..

        Could be - it was a LONG time ago - a different world

      2. Efros

        Re: I remember a review ..

        AIM 65, cut my assembler teeth on that thing, thermal printer and 16 segment LED.

  2. Gil

    If I ever get a job working for The Register, do you think they'll allow me to increase the price of my eBay auctions by posting up "news" about them here too?

    1. TheRealRoland
      Devil

      Where...

      does it say in this article that this item was put up for bidding by the author of this article?

      BTW, up to $1525 by the time i clicked on the link.

      Or is your name 'larry'? Then this could very well be an incredibly devious way of redirecting unsuspecting readers to _your_ posting on eBay?

      While I'm on eBay, i'll be looking for tin-foil hats...

  3. Luke McCarthy

    Lovely

    Hand-drawn traces...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lovely

      Possibly but more likely taped artwork, truly deserving of being called 'artwork'.

  4. Justa

    Vaguely familiar

    That looks suspiciously like a board that I had to program (that's how we spelt it then) on a Summer School with the Open University at Bath University in the early 80s.

    We had to simulate the cycles of a washing machine, putting the cycle name in the alpha display and also switching on either a red or green LED that were also on the board and and spinning a small motor that was also on the board (looks suspiciously like it's near the bottom left in the picture).

    Wonder how many of these the OU have got tucked away at Walton Hall, and if they've got an eBay account.

    1. Ian Johnston Silver badge
      Megaphone

      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

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Vaguely familiar

        I remember my old man spending his evenings slaving over a Hektor. I think the printer noise pissed him off pretty quickly though and he managed to complete his coursework on a BBC with a modem somehow.

        Anyhow, there's also a vintage Rockwell dev system up for grabs at the moment which I would have thought was more in keeping with the Reg's Z80 bent of recent weeks. Ebay item 150816504482 for the interested, complete with four 8" drives. (Not mine, I'm more a 6809 fanboi. Don't know the fella, etc.)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Vaguely familiar

          ^^ Duh. Zilog. *facepalm*

  5. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

    I actually used one for a University assignment

    This was in 1979 or 1980 (I can't remember exactly - getting old).

    Was my first experience of 6502 machine code, which became very useful when I got my BEEB a few years later. Had to code a sine-wave generator using an attached D-A converter. Real pain putting the opcodes directly into the keyboard, with no means of storing the program.

    I think that this one must be a later one, because the ones that Durham had not only used a calculator keyboard, but also a tiny calculator display as well, mounted in what I remember to be the top half of a Commodore 8 digit calculator. My memory may be playing up though...

    1. Irongut

      Re: I actually used one for a University assignment

      I did similar projects using AD and DA convertors and the 6502 when studying electronics at Uni in the early 90s. On a custom board, not one of these in the article but very similar and takes me back.

    2. philw2

      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.

  6. JustNiz
    Happy

    Mythical tech

    What is this strange new "audio cassette" technology the advert speaks of? Where's the paper tape or punched card reader?

    Will it be compatible with my new uber-fast 300 baud teletype?

  7. Euripides Pants

    Way back when I was in school

    The Tech school I went to in the late 70's used these and other single board computers to teach computer programming. Things were different then - no steenkin' HTML.

  8. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    So if I a bunch of them

    could I build a Kim cluster? Might even catch up with a 80486 if you put together a few hundred.

  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    I have to ask.

    Will it run CrysisPacman?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @TeeCee - More like

      will it run pong

  10. Toastan Buttar
    Thumb Up

    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.

  11. I Am Spartacus
    Boffin

    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 !

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