Someone said:

> Ok - time for me to throw my "early uP hacking" story into the ring...
>
> I saw Intel's data books for the original MSC8 microcomputer -
> and I just had to have one - be the 1st kid on the block with
> his very own computer so to speak.  This was back in late '73
> or early '74, if I properly recall.  The MSC8 was designed
> around the Intel 8008!  I never saw a 4004 machine, although
> they existed, and were, as far as I know, the very first uP
> on a chip...  <SNIP>


Yep, the 4004 was the first 'true' uP on a chip, but it was actually
designed as a generic calculator, not a computer.  As the story goes, the
calculators of that time used dedicated hardware, a different design for
each calculator brand and model on the market.  Intel contracted to produce
a calculator chip for a customer, and decided to design a general purpose
chip instead of the dedicated type.  I forget the reason, but Intel wound
up buying the design back from their customer and marketing it as the 4004.

BTW, I still have the Popular Electronics issue with the Altair 8800 (I
think it was from '77 or so) and the later issue with the Imsai 6800 based
machine.  My first hands-on uP experience was with a cannibalized Z80 based
Decca Satelite Navigator, writing experimental code in machine language
(OPCODES!, I didn't have an assembler).

My first PC was a Z80 based Sinclair ZX-81, but I quickly discarded Basic
and started writing machine language (I still didn't have an assembler) and
designing add-on hardware for the machine.  I remember having pages of
assembler code with me at all times, which I converted line by line into
opcodes with a Z80 reference manual.

My second machine was a home-brew based on a Xerox 820-II CP/M main board,
a surplus open-frame monitor, an ASCII keyboard and a couple of massive 8"
160K floppy drives.  Finally I had some usable software tools.  At that
time a 10Mb Winchester drive was available for the 820-II, but it was way
out of my price range.

A short whiule later I graduated to a home-brew 4.77MHz XT clone (anybody
remember the 'Blue Book' that gave parts and layouts for the many blank
M/B's and adapter cards available then).  I built the Hercules compatible
monochrome video card and the floppy controller card from TTL chips
salvaged from defective PCB's.  The rest is history.


CIAO - Martin R. Green