MOS Technology Inc, bound by a lawsuit imposed by Motorola, had to change the pin assignments of its flagship product, making it a piece of plastic, metal and silicon incompatible with computers used the Motorola 6800 . Thus was born the "Keyboard Input Monitor " or KIM-1, a small single board computer designed to serve as coach to hardware designers. Unexpectedly, KIM-1 was well received by fans and became a success. Today we tell the story of the grandfather of the Commodore 64 .
Last week we told you as Woz, with the help of Jobs, became loose a lot of chips in the Apple I , thus creating one of the IT companies most important and influential in the world. But before moving forward and presenting models similar to Apple computers, we will devote some class time to a microcomputer that can be placed between the technologically-type Altair 8800 or 8080 IMSAI and following the Apple I . Designed as " development kits, these small systems were often produced by the manufacturers of chips, as a tool for engineers to be able to assess and test their products. But the thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm of the users of the time converted many of these kits in real commercial success. The most emblematic case is that of MOS KIM-1.
KIM-1, established in 1975 and appeared in bookstores in 1976. (Vern Graner)
In the early years of the decade of 1970, the company MOS Technology welcomed the addition to its plan for a group of engineers who had left his competitor Motorola. This group of specialists, led by Chuck Peddle had been responsible for creating the popular Motorola 6800 microprocessor . Once installed on your MOS, they set to work in a few months and repeated the job of creating a clone of 6800 called MOS 6801 . The chip was indistinguishable from that manufactured by Motorola, at last, after all, had been created virtually by the same team, and was 100% compatible with that, but a little cheaper. This allowed much of the MOS gain market because their product could be directly plugged into a motherboard designed for the Motorola chip. Clearly this little liked the lawyers of the creator of 6800, which papered to MOS Technology with a series of lawsuits.
Card KIM-1 expansion. (Vern Graner)
As usual in such cases the courts had a rather strange behavior, and MOS allowed out of the mess that was put simply changing the distribution of the pins of the chip . The new model, called MOS 6502, remained a " 6800, but the metal legs of the microprocessor is ordered differently. This made no direct replacement possible between chips, and MOS sales began to suffer. Was necessary to convince developers that the MOS 6502 micro was a useful and needed for it to provide an economical and flexible platform that could "play " to familiarize themselves with the product. So it was the same Chuck Peddle was responsible for the development of a kit for to meet this demand. The result was the "Keyboard Input Monitor" or KIM-1, established in 1975 and appeared in bookstores in 1976.
You had a 24-key keypad comprising
The KIM-1 was a small microcomputer whose components are housed in a single printed circuit . It was very easy to assemble, because unlike other previous kits used only a few chips. User available keyboard keys composed of 24 -10 digits, letters "A" to "F" and some control keys, and a "screen " formed by 6 digit 7-segment LED . Despite what it may seem rudimentary, it was infinitely better than the system of keys and LEDs used by MITS or IMSAI . But what most appealed to those interested in computers in the form of KIT was its price: $ 245. For that money, the buyer took home a functional computer (or at least "functional " after having assembled) with complete 1KB of RAM. To get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe value he had for a programmer the "huge amount" of memory, just remember that to reach that amount, 8 chips used MOS MOS 6102, each with 1024 bits.
was not very difficult to copy the PCB. (Vern Graner)
One of the interesting features of the KIM-1 was its ability to expand . Peddle had used two chips MCS6530 " Peripheral Interface / Memory Device " capable of managing more memory or peripherals. Two connectors on the left edge of the plate allowed to add devices to the system and the community quickly began to develop interfaces for cassette recorders, video terminals, memory upgrades and more. The market quickly flooded with books on the KIM-1. They could find essential information about your hardware, software small examples, and guidelines for writing programs using the 6502 assembly language. Among the most common aggregates was one with a small speaker, thanks to a program that allowed the KIM-1 generate sounds and melodies. A version of BASIC, the Tiny BASIC , was also adopted by many users, although 4BK required additional RAM. Read these 4KB from a cassette tape delayed about 15 minutes.
Complex expansion card, 1979. (Vern Graner)
When the KIM-1 gained some popularity, the inevitable happened: clones emerged. Ironically, the company had been forced to redesign its product to be copy of another, began to be copied more or less openly. The simplicity of the KIM-1 allowed virtually any amateur undertake a process of "reverse engineering " on the printed circuit board with two faces, we got a dump of the ROM and, in a few days, had a new computer. Many did, and some, such as the KIN-1 of KIN Computers - were used as "clothing computers, hidden under clothing and used in the casinos for" card counting "in tables. But the strongest competition would come from Rockwell International and Synertek.
Rockwell AIM 65, more complete than the original. (Oldcomputers.net)
Rockwell International, a semiconductor manufacturer, obtained a license to market its own version of the microprocessor 6502, and those responsible for seeing the success he was having the KIM-1, did not hesitate to create your own " scorecard." So it was born in 1976 Rockwell AIM 65, a microcomputer equipped with a full ASCII keyboard, a screen composed of 20 character alphanumeric 14-segment LED and a small printer. It was much more attractive than the KIM-1, and optional ROM chips containing an assembler or BASIC interpreter Microsoft offered by Rockwell made him a favorite of many users.
ynertek bet on his SYM-1. (Oldcomputers.net)
Synertek did not want to go out of business, so they put their engineers to work against the clock, and a few weeks later presented SYM-1, a system better than the KIM-1 but not as complete as the AIM 65. It had a screen like the first, but a keyboard-membrane-with 29 keys rather more complete than the original MOS. Its developers endowed it with the same connectors as the original expansion, so that plates designed for the KIM-1 could be used without changes to the product of Synertek. On the motherboard there was also an RS-232 "really " (ie the exact voltage required by the standard), so he decided to many users to choose this model over any other. But the story of KIM-1 was far from over.
The "KIM-2" became the "Commodore PET 2001 (Bill Bertram)
MOS Technology was purchased by Commodore International up, a company owned by Jack Tramiel began manufacturing typewriters later had dabbled (with success) in the market for electronic calculators and had decided to try his luck with the sale of personal computers. Commodore marketed for some time the KIM-1 with its brand, but Chuck Peddle put to work in an extended version of the system. The new KIM should have a QWERTY keyboard full (as they had typewriters), a cassette recorder, a BASIC in ROM and ready to use it to light up the computer and a video screen. To come into force in the computer market, Commodore needed something the size of the Apple I, and Peddle was the one to provide it. When the product was ready, in 1977, was marketed as " Commodore PET 2001 ", predecessor of the Commodore VIC20 and-therefore-" grandfather "of Commodore 64, computers that certainly devote an article in the coming weeks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1
Source:
http://www.neoteo.com/retroinformatica-mos-kim-1-1976
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