Mark-8

The July 1974 issue of Radio-Electronics: "Build The Mark-8: Your Personal Minicomputer".

The Mark-8 is a microcomputer design from 1974, based on the Intel 8008 CPU (which was the world's first 8-bit microprocessor). The Mark-8 was designed by graduate student Jonathan Titus and announced as a 'loose kit' in the July 1974 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine.[1]

Project kit

The Mark-8 was introduced as a 'build it yourself' project in Radio-Electronics's July 1974 cover article, offering a US$5 booklet containing circuit board layouts and DIY construction project descriptions, with Titus himself arranging for $50 circuit board sets to be made by a New Jersey company for delivery to hobbyists. Prospective Mark-8 builders had to gather the various electronics parts themselves from a number of different sources.[2] A couple of thousand booklets and some hundred circuit board sets were eventually sold.

The Mark-8 was introduced in R-E as "Your Personal Minicomputer". This may be readily understood considering that the microcomputer revolution had yet to happen; the word 'microcomputer' was still far from being common fare. Thus, in their announcement of their computer kit, the editors quite naturally placed the Mark-8 in the same category as the era's other 'minisize' computers.

Influences

Although not very commercially successful, the Mark-8 prompted the editors of Popular Electronics magazine to consider publishing a similar but more easily accessible microcomputer project, and just six months later, in January 1975, they went through with their plans announcing the Altair 8800.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Titus, Jonathan (July 1974). "Build the Mark 8 Computer". Radio Electronics. 45 (7): 29–33.
  2. ↑ Mark-8 Minicomputer, Bryan's Old Computers, retrieved Feb 11 2009
  3. ↑ About Forrest M. Mims III, By writer, editor and publisher Harry L. Helms, retrieved Feb 24 2009

External links

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