If you read about the heritage of own computing, you hear a couple of common names like Microsoft, Apple, and even Commodore. But there have been a host of companies that were being nicely recognized and nicely regarded back again then that are all but neglected currently. Godbout computing, Ohio Scientific, and Southwest Specialized Goods (SWTP). SWTP is almost certainly finest remembered for possessing a comparatively inexpensive printer and “TV typewriter”, but they also manufactured a 6800-dependent computer and [Adrian] can take us inside of of just one.
The 6800 was Motorola’s entry into the microprocessor fray, competing with the Intel 8080. The laptop came out scant months following the introduction of the famous Altair 8800. Even though the Altair is often credited as staying the initial hobbyist-quality computer, there were being a couple of previously ones centered on the 8008, but the Altair was the very first to be productive.
The SWTP was noteworthy for its day for its blank physical appearance. Most pcs in those people times had plenty of switches and lights. The SWTP has a blank front with only a electrical power swap and a reset button. A ROM observe permit you use the device with a terminal. For about the exact same price as a bare-bones Altair that had no interfaces or memory, you could choose 1 of these up with most of the extras you would will need. The memory was only 2K, but that was 2K additional than you acquired with an Altair at that cost level.
The $450 seems relatively affordable, but in the early 70s, that was a whole lot of lawns to mow. Of study course, even though you’d need to increase memory to the Altair, you’d have to increase some kind of terminal to the SWTP. Even so, you’d wind up with something far more usable but the complete bill was almost certainly going to tactic $1,000 to get a performing procedure.
Inside of the box were some old-fashioned-looking Pc boards and connectors that will look familiar to everyone who has been inside 1970s equipment. Will it work? We really do not know but, but we hope it does. [Adrian] claims that will be in the next video.
It is amazing how considerably we’ve come in a lot less than 50 several years. A postage-stamp sized $10 computer system now has ample velocity and memory to emulate a bunch of these old equipment all at when. The SWTP has been on our web pages before. A lot of these aged machines and corporations are all but forgotten, but not by us!