waltermixxx
Experienced Member
Well I completed my S100 mini IMSAI computer, based on Josh Bensadon's JAIR8080 Board (Josh's Altair/IMSAI Replacement 8080 Board) and Don Caprio's Mini IMSAI front Panel board. These two boards make a great team. Details on both Josh and Don's boards are available on the s100computers website, if you have not checked them out yet, you should.
I've seen a few threads from folks on this forum, wanting to get started with S100 computers, and if you cannot afford a real IMSAI or ALTAIR, and you want a real S100 bus, I think this should do it. It has for me. This is my first foray into S100, and with these two boards i have almost everything i need to get started. Keep in mind you will still need an S100 motherboard and a suite able power supply. Mind you if you just wanted to use the JAIR8080 (Josh's 8080 board, I'm trying to brand this thing by using JAIR8080 a lot... he he) on it's own it can work stand-alone via it's many serial connection options... (even FTDI.)
This sounds like an infomercial, and sorry about that, but I have been excited about this project since Josh announced his new boards.
If you are looking for a great all in one solution, or a board to trouble shoot your own system this may be the ticket. with 2 built in serial interfaces, 64K ram, 32K rom and 2 8 bit parallel ports, you would think, wow man that's crazy.... but add an SD card interface that supports up to 4 disk images for booting cpm, and you might think Damn! that's insanely great. And it's all done without the use of Micro controllers or any modern trickery. ( he he ). Add to that, Don Caprio's Mini Imsai front Panel board and it makes it all that much more fun. The replica switch paddles are awesome and feel great. It's a high quality board with high quality switches.
I've wanted this pair of boards since I saw them at VCF Mid West last year. The built in SD card reader reads standard full sized SD cards and does not require any special tools to load images on it. I'm hoping to do a Youtube video on both boards. This year at Vintage Computer Festival Mid West, I'm hoping to pick up some extra cards for it. Maybe a physical disk controller cards. Now, enjoy the eye candy:
more pictures in my flicker feed:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/66577016@N00/albums/72157668481755100/with/27251505380/
Check them out...
I'm excited because I just finished building it last night, and tonight i will be playing around with it.
Im in the process of designing a way to keep the board more rigid as my S100 motherboard does not have cage or edge guides for the cards, so I'm 3d printing something... I will post .stl files if I have luck
Cheers.
I've seen a few threads from folks on this forum, wanting to get started with S100 computers, and if you cannot afford a real IMSAI or ALTAIR, and you want a real S100 bus, I think this should do it. It has for me. This is my first foray into S100, and with these two boards i have almost everything i need to get started. Keep in mind you will still need an S100 motherboard and a suite able power supply. Mind you if you just wanted to use the JAIR8080 (Josh's 8080 board, I'm trying to brand this thing by using JAIR8080 a lot... he he) on it's own it can work stand-alone via it's many serial connection options... (even FTDI.)
This sounds like an infomercial, and sorry about that, but I have been excited about this project since Josh announced his new boards.
If you are looking for a great all in one solution, or a board to trouble shoot your own system this may be the ticket. with 2 built in serial interfaces, 64K ram, 32K rom and 2 8 bit parallel ports, you would think, wow man that's crazy.... but add an SD card interface that supports up to 4 disk images for booting cpm, and you might think Damn! that's insanely great. And it's all done without the use of Micro controllers or any modern trickery. ( he he ). Add to that, Don Caprio's Mini Imsai front Panel board and it makes it all that much more fun. The replica switch paddles are awesome and feel great. It's a high quality board with high quality switches.
I've wanted this pair of boards since I saw them at VCF Mid West last year. The built in SD card reader reads standard full sized SD cards and does not require any special tools to load images on it. I'm hoping to do a Youtube video on both boards. This year at Vintage Computer Festival Mid West, I'm hoping to pick up some extra cards for it. Maybe a physical disk controller cards. Now, enjoy the eye candy:
more pictures in my flicker feed:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/66577016@N00/albums/72157668481755100/with/27251505380/
Check them out...
I'm excited because I just finished building it last night, and tonight i will be playing around with it.
Im in the process of designing a way to keep the board more rigid as my S100 motherboard does not have cage or edge guides for the cards, so I'm 3d printing something... I will post .stl files if I have luck
Cheers.