4 ms·

Holy cow. It is incredible how versatile this little thing is. I wonder if anyone has succeeded building a personal computer out of it, with keyboard and tape.

classichasclass 3y ago
Of course. There are many such examples of homebrew kits with tape and TTY; I routinely use a serial port connection as TTY over the 20mA current loop with my briefcase KIM that also has the tape lines brought out to a 1/4" TRS jack, though uploading binaries over the serial link is more handy for testing. The TVT 6 5/8 was an easy to assemble video board, or the cool kids had an MTU 8K RAM expansion that emitted the contents as a 320x200 composite image. In fact, the AIM-65 was basically a heavily expanded KIM with a LED screen, printer, keyboard and tape all in one box from the factory.
- TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
  You like the word 'handy'. It's in the blog post twice and once in your comment here.
  - cpach 3y ago
    It wasn’t 'classichasclass who wrote the blog post…
  - jgrahamc 3y ago
    I suppose I do, but to make you happy I've changed one use of handy to nifty.
    - TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
      Trivia: handy means 'mobile phone' in Austrian German
- whartung 3y ago
  Trivia bit. For those that don't know, the Cal Poly Universities at Pomona and San Luis Obispo collaborate on the annual Rose Parade Float. Back in the day, they would win awards for their motion control and animation work. Much of that work was done down at Pomona. And the computer they used as the control computer in those early days was the AIM-65.
djmips 3y ago
Dave's Garage on YouTube has some videos on him aquiring a fairly built out Kim-1 with keyboard and video display IIRC.
mysterydip 3y ago
I remember many years ago a school teacher let me borrow a book where someone made a robot out of a KIM-1: https://cyberneticzoo.com/cyberneticanimals/1976-mike-microtron-tod-loofbourrow-american/ https://cyberneticzoo.com/cyberneticanimals/1976-mike-microt...
dboreham 3y ago
Not sure if that was ironic, but the Apple I , then Apple II was exactly that. Also the PET.
- blackhaz 3y ago
  Sorry, this was before my times and in a land far away. I started with the ZX Spectrum.
timbit42 3y ago
Yes. This is exactly what happened. The KIM-1 (Keyboard Input Monitor) was created by Chuck Peddle at MOS Technology, which later was bought by Commodore, so the MOS Technology KIM-1 became the Commodore KIM-1. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1) Peddle then expanded the KIM-1 into the Commodore PET 2001 with case, monitor, keyboard and tape drive all built in. The 2 KB TIM (Terminal Input Monitor) ROM in the KIM-1 was expanded into the 4 KB KERNAL ROM in the PET. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET) Of course, then the PET was upgraded with additional models including the 3032, 4032, 8032, 8096, 8296 and the SuperPET, then the CBM-II series and the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 128 and the unreleased Commodore 65.

classichasclass 3y ago

Of course. There are many such examples of homebrew kits with tape and TTY; I routinely use a serial port connection as TTY over the 20mA current loop with my briefcase KIM that also has the tape lines brought out to a 1/4" TRS jack, though uploading binaries over the serial link is more handy for testing. The TVT 6 5/8 was an easy to assemble video board, or the cool kids had an MTU 8K RAM expansion that emitted the contents as a 320x200 composite image. In fact, the AIM-65 was basically a heavily expanded KIM with a LED screen, printer, keyboard and tape all in one box from the factory.

TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
You like the word 'handy'. It's in the blog post twice and once in your comment here.
- cpach 3y ago
  It wasn’t 'classichasclass who wrote the blog post…
- jgrahamc 3y ago
  I suppose I do, but to make you happy I've changed one use of handy to nifty.
  - TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
    Trivia: handy means 'mobile phone' in Austrian German
whartung 3y ago
Trivia bit. For those that don't know, the Cal Poly Universities at Pomona and San Luis Obispo collaborate on the annual Rose Parade Float. Back in the day, they would win awards for their motion control and animation work. Much of that work was done down at Pomona. And the computer they used as the control computer in those early days was the AIM-65.

djmips 3y ago

Dave's Garage on YouTube has some videos on him aquiring a fairly built out Kim-1 with keyboard and video display IIRC.

mysterydip 3y ago

I remember many years ago a school teacher let me borrow a book where someone made a robot out of a KIM-1: https://cyberneticzoo.com/cyberneticanimals/1976-mike-microtron-tod-loofbourrow-american/ https://cyberneticzoo.com/cyberneticanimals/1976-mike-microt...

dboreham 3y ago

Not sure if that was ironic, but the Apple I , then Apple II was exactly that. Also the PET.

blackhaz 3y ago
Sorry, this was before my times and in a land far away. I started with the ZX Spectrum.

timbit42 3y ago

Yes. This is exactly what happened. The KIM-1 (Keyboard Input Monitor) was created by Chuck Peddle at MOS Technology, which later was bought by Commodore, so the MOS Technology KIM-1 became the Commodore KIM-1. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1) Peddle then expanded the KIM-1 into the Commodore PET 2001 with case, monitor, keyboard and tape drive all built in. The 2 KB TIM (Terminal Input Monitor) ROM in the KIM-1 was expanded into the 4 KB KERNAL ROM in the PET. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET) Of course, then the PET was upgraded with additional models including the 3032, 4032, 8032, 8096, 8296 and the SuperPET, then the CBM-II series and the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 128 and the unreleased Commodore 65.