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I am a bit disappointed that only the look&feel was cloned not the internals. It's just a PIC24FJ128 in an over-sized case. I would much prefer to have a clone

I am a bit disappointed that only the look&feel was cloned not the internals. It's just a PIC24FJ128 in an over-sized case. I would much prefer to have a clone that comes with a thick manual and that you need to solder for 2 days. That would be fun. Something ala Ben Eater computer but more pro. The pricing page is funny, especially the old price listing saying how much you get for "free" with this kit. You start expecting an unreasonable price after that and indeed you are not disappointed.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
It's just a PIC with a hand-rolled clock-accurate emulation of the 8080 and the supporting circuitry. That's not a small amount of effort. So far as I know the 8080 has been EOLd, so it would be hard to source it today anyway.
- SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
  Z80 is still in production. Not the same but very close. Even FPGA is a lot more appropriate than a damn PIC.
  - jdsully 6y ago
    BASIC didn't run properly on the Z80 due to some of the optimizations relying on very minor differences between them. The CP/M version was later patched to support it but the earlier "bare metal" versions typically run on an Altair would crash.
armadsen 6y ago
http://altairkit.com http://altairkit.com doesn't seem to be available any longer, but it was what you describe. An actual replica instead of just a functional and cosmetic clone. You can still find new replica CPU, RAM, and probably backplane boards out there for sale, so if you wanted to build your own replica, it's not impossible. Figuring out the case and the front panel would be the hard part, I think.
- 0xmarcin 6y ago
  Thank you for the link. I could download the full schematics from the site and also the original assembly manual! Nice. BTW On my personal TODO list I have this project: http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/minimax8085 http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/minimax8085
mark-r 6y ago
I wonder if the PIC could drive an actual S100 bus so you could plug boards into it?
reaperducer 6y ago
I would much prefer to have a clone that comes with a thick manual and that you need to solder for 2 days. That would be fun I'd like a real clone, too. But there are two things in the way: 1. I'd like a pair of eight inch floppy drives, like I used to have. I miss those proper storage beasts. 2. I'd have to wait for my wife to die, because there's no way she will ever allow me to keep something like that in the library. I'm barely allowed to keep my Atari 2600 in the living room.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago

It's just a PIC with a hand-rolled clock-accurate emulation of the 8080 and the supporting circuitry. That's not a small amount of effort. So far as I know the 8080 has been EOLd, so it would be hard to source it today anyway.

SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
Z80 is still in production. Not the same but very close. Even FPGA is a lot more appropriate than a damn PIC.
- jdsully 6y ago
  BASIC didn't run properly on the Z80 due to some of the optimizations relying on very minor differences between them. The CP/M version was later patched to support it but the earlier "bare metal" versions typically run on an Altair would crash.

armadsen 6y ago

http://altairkit.com http://altairkit.com doesn't seem to be available any longer, but it was what you describe. An actual replica instead of just a functional and cosmetic clone. You can still find new replica CPU, RAM, and probably backplane boards out there for sale, so if you wanted to build your own replica, it's not impossible. Figuring out the case and the front panel would be the hard part, I think.

0xmarcin 6y ago
Thank you for the link. I could download the full schematics from the site and also the original assembly manual! Nice. BTW On my personal TODO list I have this project: http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/minimax8085 http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/minimax8085

mark-r 6y ago

I wonder if the PIC could drive an actual S100 bus so you could plug boards into it?

reaperducer 6y ago

I would much prefer to have a clone that comes with a thick manual and that you need to solder for 2 days. That would be fun I'd like a real clone, too. But there are two things in the way: 1. I'd like a pair of eight inch floppy drives, like I used to have. I miss those proper storage beasts. 2. I'd have to wait for my wife to die, because there's no way she will ever allow me to keep something like that in the library. I'm barely allowed to keep my Atari 2600 in the living room.