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Imsai 8080 Computer (2004)
- carlos 6y agoI bought an Imsai8080 replica from https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/ https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/ I had a really nice time building the kit, toggle switches and display leds look exactly like original ones. Internally is an emulation of the IMSAI 8080 based on the ESP32 microcontroller
- redis_mlc 6y agoWhat kinds of things do you plan to do with it?
- carlos 6y agoBasically have fun playing around with it in the same way as with a real IMSAI8080... As an example look at this video on how to enter and run a small assembler program using the switches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYNAMKPBSFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYNAMKPBSFI
- tyingq 6y agoNoting you can also hook up a console and use it like any other CP/M machine...run WordStar, Zork, etc.
- wazoox 6y agoYou may also find a more faithful replica of the Altair 8800 here https://altairclone.com/ https://altairclone.com/ though admittedly the IMSAI with its big coloured toggles is much more eye-catching.
- tyingq 6y agoLess faithful replica of the Altair, but much more affordable: https://www.adwaterandstir.com/altair/ https://www.adwaterandstir.com/altair/ There's also a very affordable (< $100, including the needed Arduino DUE) workalike that pops up on eBay every now and again...I bought one: https://imgur.com/a/qntqSMG https://imgur.com/a/qntqSMG
- madengr 6y agoA few pics of my Altair mini build here. The kits seems no longer available. https://rfpoweramp.com/ https://rfpoweramp.com/
- madengr 6y agoI bought one of those too. Probably finish up the build this weekend.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- imglorp 6y agoLook at that rectified power supply. The transformer is enormous, guessing about 15 kg, and the filter caps could shock an elephant. The ripple noise would have irritated open collector logic.
- tyingq 6y agoI assume that's the reason for the 2 giant capacitors. The whole unit weighs 40lbs (~18kg). The default power supply output 380 watts, and there was an optional larger one with 480. https://www.hartetechnologies.com/manuals/IMSAI/8080%20System.pdf https://www.hartetechnologies.com/manuals/IMSAI/8080%20Syste...
- jmount 6y agoMy father purchased and built one of the originals as a kit. There was a program that played "flight of the bumble bee" on radio using radio leakage on the S100 bus.
- hvs 6y agoAh, the computer from "Wargames". https://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm https://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm
- jdsully 6y agoI have one of these, got it after landing my first big tech job. I learned to program on an emulator of these 8-bit computers so it meant a lot to finally get a real one. Most people search for high level languages when learning programming. My brain worked different - I wanted to boil the complexity away and learn the fundamentals. These 8 bit machines were the simplest computers I could find to achieve that. The joke was on me though, mine had been upgraded to a Z80 card (yay!) that unfortunately no longer worked with the front panel (boo!).