Retro-Tech: IMSAI
Not a geek alive that doesn't recognize that name:
IMSAI
This was the first "big" personal computer - one that could be put into a business as well as serve a home 'hobbyist'. Lots of front panel switches and lights -- these were used to manually step through various address and read and write the data at those locations. Initially, you needed to enter about 30 steps worth of program this way before it could recognize a peripheral such as disk drive or tape reader.
Fischer and Freitas are two other names that geeks will recognize and they have re-engineered and reissued the IMSAI. Very cool design in that it still takes the standard S-100 cards (I still have my original 300 baud Dennis C. Hayes modem - the first product they made) but there is room in the back for an ATX motherboard.
The S-100 section is powered by a modern chip - the Zilog 20 MHZ. Z8S180 Processor- 1 Meg direct addressing (organized as sixteen 64K "pages"), code compliant with Z80 extended instruction set so you can run all the CP/M software but at a blazing 20MHz.
And yes, the switches and blinkey lights all work...
Looking at about $1,400 for the full version (you still need the ATX motherboard).
Posted by DaveH at February 23, 2004 7:53 PM