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Registered ExhibitsVintage Hobbyist Single Board Computers
Steve Valin (Nevada City, CA, United States)
| This exhibit features a number of hobbyist single board computers from the golden era of hobbyist computing, including: 6502 based - MOS-Commodore KIM-1
- Synertek Sym-1
- Rockwell AIM-65
- Ohio Scientific Superboard II
1802 based - Quest Super Elf
- Netronics ElfII
- Homebrew Elf I built in 1978 (at age 14!)
6800 based |
NeXT
Steve Valin (Nevada City, CA, United States)
| | This exhibit features a 68030-based NeXT Cube, a 68040-based NeXT Cube with NeXTDimension graphics board and color monitor, a NeXT Station with B&W NeXT monitor, an HP 712 running NeXTStep 3.3, and an Apple G4 Cube running OS/X, the culmination of Steve Jobs' NeXT OS. |
The ZALTAIR 8800
Howard Harte (Dublin, CA, United States)
| This is a realiZation of the computer that Steve WoZniak enviZioned back in 1977 as a hoax to torment MITS at the First West Coast Computer Faire. The ZALTAIR 8800 is a 50MHz EnhanZed Z80 CPU running CP/M-Plus and features USB PeripheralZ. You can even print professional looking documentZ using WordStar 4.0 and a modern LaZer printer connected to the ZALTAIR 8800 via USB.
It's amaZing! The ZALTAIR 8800 will be unveiled to the public for the first time ever at VCF X! |
The Silver Anniversary of Laptops
Evan Koblentz (Springfield, NJ, United States)
| | In 1982, six companies pioneered the laptop computer industry: Casio, Grid, Epson, Grundy, MicroOffice, and Teleram. Most collectors know all about the Epson HX-20 and GRiD Compass 1101. But the other four--the Casio FP-200, Grundy NewBrain A.D., MicroOffice RoadRunner, and Teleram T-3000--are less storied. These four will be exhibited and the history of each respective company told. |
AT&T 3B2/500 + XM w/ DMD TTY5620
Stephen Jones (Seattle, WA, United States)
| The venerable SDF Public Access UNIX System returns!
Featuring an AT&T 3B2/500+XM, two AT&T Terminals and a TTY5620, this interactive exhibit represents a past incarnation of the SDF Public Access UNIX System (BBS) and will allow visitors to login and play the multiuser games only found on the SDF (mazewar, com, bboard, John Gonnerman's MultiDungeonGame, Steven Shipway's Wanderer, and many others). The system will be accessible via the INTERNET so that current SDF users may communicate/play with outside visitors. |
Pocket Rockets
Cameron Kaiser (La Mesa, CA, United States)
| | This exhibit features the complete line of the famous Tandy Pocket Computer series, from the original PC-1 all the way to the PC-8 and everything in between. Meet these programmable ancestors of the PDA and their surprisingly useable peripherals and software. |
The Humane Machine
Dwight Elvey (Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
| Jef Raskin's Canon Cat was an interesting concept. Besides the non-mouse interface, many of the features present in this machine were designed to make it a text processor that was easy to use by anyone.
This exhibit will demonstrate the features and functionality of the Canon Cat, and also dispel many of the myths and rumors about this interesting little machine. |
CompactFlash for Apple 1 and Apple II
Rich Dreher (Wausau, WI, United States)
| On display will be an Obtronix Apple-1 clone demonstrating the new CFFA1 and an Apple //gs demonstrating the CFFA.
The CFFA is a Complact Flash and IDE interface card for the Apple ][ series of computer.
The new CFFA1 card is a reworking of the CFFA for the Apple 1 platform. The CFFA1 works with Apple 1 clones including Vince Briel's Replica 1, the Obtronix Apple 1 clone, and others. The on-board firmware can read and write the ProDOS file system, making it a breeze to get programs onto your Apple 1 clone!
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The Micro-KIM
Vince Briel (Workshop) (North Ridgeville, Ohio, United States)
| | The Micro-KIM is a functional clone of the KIM-1 that was created in 1975 as a development board for the then new 6502 CPU by Chuck Peddle. See the Micro-KIM running programs written for the KIM-1 and relive the golden age days of hobbyist computing. |
Tiger Learning Computer
Wayne Smith (La Canada, CA, United States)
| | The Tiger Learning Computer (TLC) was a cartridge based system Apple IIe technology at its core. The TLC was released in limited quantities in four test markets on April 1, 1997, but never made it into wider distribution. This exhibit includes two TLCs, the original retail box, two original optional software programs with original packaging and full documentation. |
Small System Cavalcade
Robert Rosenbloom (Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
| This exhibit will feature a veritable smorgasbord of smaller computer systems including the HP 9100A calculator, HP 9830 calculator, Tektronix 31 calculator, Tektronix 4051, Altair 8800b, IMSAI 8080, the Mark 8, the ROLM 1603 military computer, and a Data General Nova 1200.
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UniFlex
Frank Wilson (Seattle, WA, United States)
| On display will be a Uniflex capable computer from Europe that was a clone of the SWTPC S09 machine and runs the UniFlex operating system, which was similar to Unix. TSC supplied the Flex operating system starting with 6800 based SWTPC machines and ending with the 6809 based UniFlex multitasking system. The machine has dual 8" drives and can switch between the Flex and UniFlex operating systems.
There will also be a 6800 Flex system built around an ExpressPCB Miniboard and running Flex under the MCX-11 multitasking kernal from the old Motorola "freeware" bulletin board. It has two floppy drives, a RAMdisk, and an IDE drive with a clear cover. The SWTPC SS-30 bus based IDE controller from Don Sommer and floppy controller from Michael Holley have been added. The CPU is a 68HC11, which runs 6800 code and has plenty of "bells and whistles" available. |
Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics
Michael Holley (Seattle, WA, United States)
| The geeks in the personal computer revolution grew up reading hobbyist electronics magazines such as Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics. In the 1960s they were read by over 500,000 hobbyists each month.
Daniel Meyer of Southwest Technical Products teamed with Don Lancaster in writing magazine articles and selling kits of parts to build the projects described within their pages. By 1970, they were selling a million dollars worth of kits a year. Getting a project on the magazine cover could turn a garage shop into a success. Ed Roberts of MITS did it with a desktop calculator kit and John Simonton of PAIA did it with a drum synthesizer kit.
The most celebrated issue is the January 1975 Popular Electronics that announced the MITS Altair 8800 computer kit. While this was not the first computer kit, the magazine story launched the personal computer revolution. The February issue happened to have an image digitizer project that the authors quickly modified to plug into the Altair bus, which resulted in the start of Cromemco. This process was repeated over and over for many new companies.
This exhibit traces the history of these two magazines from 1908 to 2003. You can read selected stories to see what interested generations of geeks, such as Homebrew TV in 1928! Over a dozen magazine projects from the 1960s and 1970s will be on display. Several others are on display in the Computer History Museum collection.
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Classic Computers
Jordan Ruderman (Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
| | On display will be the Processor Technology SOL-20 Microcomputer, the Apple Lisa 2/10, the Exidy Sorcerer, and the AIM-65. |
Laser 128 and Apple //gs
Leonard Taylor (Richmond, CA, United States)
| The Laser 128 is an Apple //c clone. Like the //c, it has 128K of RAM, a switchable 40/80 column display, serial and parallel ports, an expansion port, and an integrated 5.25 inch disk drive. Sold at Sears retail stores in the late 1980s, they were popular due to their low cost, portability and integrated hardware.
This exhibit will also feature an Apple //gs, the 3rd generation of the Apple ][. |
Commodore PET - 30 Years
Larry Anderson (San Andreas, CA, United States)
| This display will feature the venerable Commodore PET, one of the original "Big Three", which along with the Apple ][ and TRS-80 were introduced 30 years ago.
An original PET as well as a more modern PET will showcase the capabilities of this monochrome yet stylistic computer. |
Gordon French's Choo-Choo Train
David Dameron (Manhattan Beach, CA, United States)
| | This exhibit feathres a video display module demo with a small S-100 computer from the December 1976 issue of the "Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter". Subtitled, "Idle Fantasies on a VDM screen". |
Differential Analyzer
Tim Robinson (Boulder Creek, CA, United States)
| On display will be a Differential Analyzer based on the 1931 prototype by Vannevar Bush at MIT.
The differential analyzer is a mechanical analog computer used to solve differential equations producing output in graphical form. In the 1930's and 1940's they were used extensively for calculations in electrical engineering, physics and ballistics.
This reconstruction, built from standard Meccano construction set parts, was last seen at VCF 7.0.
For further information, please visit my differential analyzer page. |
Have You Played Atari Today?
Tom Wilson (Woodside, CA, United States)
| The Atari 400 and 800 were arguably the best home game machines of their time. Both will be on display with a selection of the day's most popular games on cartridge and cassette. See their graphic realism come to life on a vintage 1979 color television set.
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Magic-1 HomebrewCPU TTL Minicomputer
Bill Buzbee (Half Moon Bay, CA, United States)
| | On display will be the Magic-1 HomebrewCPU, a hobbyist minicomputer constructed from a pile of 74x series TTL chips and wirewrap. Magic-1 was previously shown at VCF 8.0, where it won Best of Show. This year Magic-1 will be showing off a new fully multi-user, multi-tasking port of the Minix operating system. |
HP 9000/375
Boris Debic (Foster City, CA, United States)
| | Featured in this exhibit is a fully equipped classic from the Unix workstation period in the late 1980's. This HP 9000 series 300 workstation is a great example of HP's modular technology of the time and enjoyed the fame of being the workhorse of the electrical engineering world supplanting the PDP-11. It is invariably mentioned in the resumes of people running some of today's most highly visible Valley companies. Enjoy a Unix throwback into the 1980's and definitely try lifting the floppy drive. |
Early Sun Workstations
Robert Harker (Palo Alto, CA, United States)
| This exhibit features four vintage Sun Microsystems computers:
Sun 1/100U workstation
Sun 1/150U server
Sun 3/50 workstation
Sun 3/160 workstation
Included in the display is a collection of circuit boards showing early Sun hardware designs as well as early Sun sales literature and price lists.
Also featured will be early Ethernet hardware including 10Base-5, 10Base-T, Transceivers, and tapping tools. |
Icom ATTACH'E
Larry Pezzolo (Palo Alto, CA, United States)
| | The ATTACH'E is a self contained S-100 computer with keyboard and case, based on the design of the Altair 8800. Released almost 30 years ago by Percom (the company that purchased MITS) it was in production for only 6 months. |
RCA 1800 MICROTUTOR
Larry Pezzolo (Palo Alto, CA, United States)
| | The MICROTUTOR preceded the COSMAC "ELF" computer which was very similar in form and function. This one is a very early version that uses the COSMAC 1801 microprocessor, the two chip predecessor to the 1802. |
Apple //c: 8-bit Portability
Tom Wilson (Woodside, CA, United States)
| Imagine, if you will, a portable computer that doesn't weigh 40 pounds. Impossible dream you say? Not with the Apple //c and its optional flat panel display. Come see how it fits snug in its convenient carrying case, and still has room for all its original software and documentation. Computing power on the go!
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Con Brio Digital Synthesizer
Brian Kehew (Los Angeles, California, United States)
| This display showcases the Con Brio series of synthesizers, a brilliantly designed product that did not reach commercial success.
Con Brio synthesizers were designed during the late 1970s through early 1980s and were driven by five 6502 microprocessors. The innovate interface provide a CRT display with both graphics and text to allow composing and editing down to the waveform.
One of the existing machines, the ADS-200R, is under restoration with partial functionality already achieved, allowing a demonstration of its basic operation and sound.
The other unit, an ADS-200, will also be displayed to demonstrate the evolution between models. |
Sage Computer Technology and Stride Micro
David W. Erhart (San Mateo, California, United States)
| Sage Computer Technology introduced itself to the world in March of 1982 at the 7th annual West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco with three operational Sage II computers based on the Motorola 68000. Rod Coleman had started on the schematics for the Sage II on August 15th, 1981. Bill Bonham wrote the BIOS for the new computer and Bob Needham did the layout and mechanical design. And they did it all--concept to production--in just six months.
Come see the Sage II and Sage IV computers running UCSD p-System and CP/M-68K. |
Rare East German Chess Computer
Hans Franke (Munich, Bavaria, Germany)
| | Featured in this exhibit is a rare East German chess computer that Hans schlepped all the way from Munich, Germany. |
The Very First Apple
Liza Loop (Palo Alto, CA, United States)
| According to Woz, he gave the first Apple 1 to LO*OP Center, Inc. On display will be that very machine.
Steve met Liza Loop in 1976 at a Homebrew Computer Club meeting where she announced the opening of Learning Options * Open Portal (LO*OP), a public access computer center in Cotati, California. Since Liza was the first person Steve met who intended to introduce microcomputers into schools around California, he journeyed to the Sonoma County Computer Club (hosted by LO*OP), showed off the Apple 1 and presented it to Liza. It was first used in a math class at Windsor Junior High School just north of Santa Rosa. |
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