The First Microcomputer: The Q1

September 28, 2022 by Jonathan Bennett 48 Comments

Quiz time, what was the first commercially available microcomputer? The Altair 8800? Something obscure like the SCELBI? The Mark-8 kit? According to [The Byte Attic], it was actually the Q1, based on the Intel 8008 processor. The first Q1 microcomputer was delivered in December of 1972, making it the first, as far as he can tell. Later revisions used the Z80 processor, which is the model pictured above that [The Byte Attic] has in his possession. It’s a beautiful little machine, with a striking orange plasma display.

The irony is that this machine is almost entirely forgotten about. The original unit may have looked more like a typewriter, pictured here. If you have any first hand knowledge, or especially software, documentation, or surviving hardware bits, make sure to check in to add to the knowledge pool about this amazing little machine.

It’s an important milestone, and the development of the Q1 may have been a direct cause of Intel developing the more powerful 8080 microprocessor. It seems that Daniel Alroy’s work on this machine literally kicked off the microcomputer revolution, and it’s been missing from our computer lore for too many years. We’re very hopeful to see more of this story come together, and the history of the Q1 fully recovered.

And if retro hardware is your jam, we’ve got you covered, including among others, the parallel story about the first microprocessor.

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A Portable Computer Living In 1988 But Also In The Future

August 11, 2022 by Matthew Carlson 35 Comments

Every once in a while, there will be a project that is light on details but inundated with glorious, drool-worthy pictures. [Nexaner7] recently showed off his cyberdeck he built over a year inside an old LCD-386. So what’s special about it? This isn’t just a Raspberry Pi or some SBC inside but a complete AMD Ryzen 5600, Nvidia RTX 3060, screen, and keyboard in a 19.5-liter space (0.68 cubic feet). Since there wouldn’t be enough space inside for decent airflow, he decided to water-cool everything, which added to the build.

While [Nexaner7] doesn’t have a video walkthrough, he does have a build log with dozens of pictures in two parts: part 1 and part 2. As you can imagine, there were copious amounts of 3d printing for brackets and holders, trying various screens and GPUs to see what fit and what didn’t. He tried to use the original keyboard, even with a 5-pin DIN to PS2 to USB adapter, but the keyboard was flakey, likely due to rust. He dropped in a CM Quickfire TK PCB with a few modifications as it was close to the same size. He swapped the display for a 1440p portable monitor with a thin ribbon HDMI cable to route from the GPU to the screen.

We’re happy to report that the parts inside were sold to someone who restores old PC, so a somewhat rare LCD-386 wasn’t destroyed. With a gorgeous build like this, perhaps he should enter the Cyberdeck contest. Eagle-eyed readers might notice that recently we covered an LCD-386 with its contents retrieved via a hacked-together serial bus.

Retro Computers From Paper

August 6, 2021 by Chris Lott 22 Comments

Want to start your own collection of retro computers, for free? Well graphic designer [Rocky Bergen]’s collection of paper craft models might be the answer. [Rocky] has designed over a dozen models of old computers, including classics such as the IMSAI 8080, Commodore Pet, and the BBC Microcomputer to name just a few.

The completed size of these models isn’t mentioned, but inspecting the PDF file of a randomly selected Commodore C64 model shows it was intended to be printed on A3 paper ( 297 x 420 mm, or roughly the size of an 11 x 17 ANSI C page if you think better in inches ). That still doesn’t give us the finished size of a model, but one collector posted on [Rocky]’s site that when he scaled it to A4 paper, the resulting computer was a perfect match for use with common 1/6 scale dolls and dollhouses (also known as playscale). Of course, the pattern existing as a computer PDF file, you can scale it to any size you want.

We’ve covered a few paper craft projects in the past, including these cool automata, a claw from a crane game, and even a gyroscope that really spins. Check out the video below the break to see [Rocky] assembling the Apple II paper craft model. Thanks to [CollegeCop] for sending this into our tip line.

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Pi Pico-Powered ATX Motherboard

June 22, 2021 by Chris Lott 18 Comments

For a couple of years, embedded developer and Rust addict [Jonathan Pallant] aka [theJPster] has been working on a simple computer which he calls the Neotron. The idea is to make a computer that is not only easy to use but easy to understand as well. He describes it as a CP/M- or DOS-like operating system for small ARM microcontrollers. His most recent project is powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2040 Pico and built in the format of a microATX motherboard. This board packs a lot of features for a Pico-based design, including 12-bit color VGA and seven expansion slots. See his GitHub repository for a full list of specifications, and all the files needed to build your own — it is an Open Source project after all.

Besides the Neotron Pico itself, a couple of gems caught our eye in this well-documented project. [theJPster] was running out of I/O pins on the Pico, and didn’t have enough left over for all the peripherals’ chip selects. Check out how he uses an MCP23S17 SPI-bus I/O expander and a tri-state buffer to solve the problem.

On a more meta level, we are intrigued by his use of GitHub Actions. Per the standard concept of repositories, they shouldn’t contain the results of a build, be that an executable binary or Gerber files. Distribution of the build products is typically handled outside of GitHub, using something like GitHub’s Large File Storage service, or just ignoring convention altogether and putting them in the repo anyway. [theJPster] uses another method, employing GitHub Actions to generate the files needed for PCB fabrication, for example.

The Neotron Pico is the latest in a series of boards made to run Neotron OS. Previous boards include:

Neotron 9x — Microchip SAM9X
Neotron 1000 — STM32H7 + Lattice Semi iCE40 FPGA
Neotron 600 — Teensy 4.1
Neotron 340ST — ST 32F746G-DISCOVERY

Repairing A Vintage HP 9825 The Hard Way

May 19, 2021 by Jonathan Bennett 16 Comments

[CuriousMarc] is at it again, this time trying to undo the damage from a poorly designed power circuit, that fried the internals of his HP 9825 computer. (Video, embedded below.)

The power supply on this particular model has a failure mode where a dying transistor can lead to 13 V on the 5 V line. This causes all the havoc one would expect on the internals of a 1970s era portable computer. This particular computer is rather rare, so instead of calling it a lost cause, our protagonist decides to replace the faulty transistor, install a proper overvoltage protection circuit, and then start the tedious hunt for which chips actually let their magic smoke out.
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Homebrew 68K Micro-ATX Computer Runs Its Own OS

March 27, 2021 by Tom Nardi 23 Comments

We’re no stranger to home built Motorola 68000 computers here at Hackaday, but more often than not, they tend to be an experiment in retro minimalism. The venerable processor is usually joined by only a handful of components, and there’s an excellent chance they’ll have taken up residence on a piece of perfboard. Then [NotArtyom] sent in his Blitz, and launched the bar into the stratosphere.

Make no mistake, the Blitz isn’t just some simple demo of classic chips. The open hardware motherboard has onboard floppy, IDE, and PS/2 interfaces, with a trio of 8-bit ISA expansion slots for good measure. The Motorola 68030 CPU is humming along at 50 MHz, with 4 MB of RAM and 512 KB of ROM along for the ride. Designed to fit the Micro-ATX motherboard standard, you can even mount the Blitz in a contemporary PC case and run it on a standard ATX power supply.

An earlier prototype of the Blitz motherboard.

As if the hardware wasn’t impressive enough, [NotArtyom] went ahead and created his own open source DOS-like operating system for it to run. Written in portable C, G-DOS can run on various m68k boards as well as ARM and PowerPC machines. It’s an incredible project in its own right. If you’re looking for something to show off your homebrew computer, you could certainly do worse than pulling down a copy of G-DOS. If you do port it to a new board, make sure to let [NotArtyom] know.

It’s taken [NotArtyom] three years to develop Blitz and G-DOS with his only goal being to better understand homebrew computers. He has no interest in monetizing the design or turning it into a kit, but instead hopes it will be a resource and inspiration for others with similar interests. Oh yeah, and he did all of this before he even graduated high school. If you weren’t questioning your life’s accomplishments before, now would be a great time to start.

Interested in building your own Motorola 68000 computer, but haven’t yet attained the wizarding level of [NotArtyom]? You could start with something a bit simpler like the 68k-nano, or if you’re really in a pinch, just dead bug a Dragonball 68328.

MouSTer Brings USB To Retro Computers

January 22, 2021 by Tom Nardi 27 Comments

Folks who like the take the old Amiga out for the occasional Sunday drive usually do it because they have wistful memories of the simpler times. Back when you could edit documents or view spreadsheets on a machine that had RAM measured in kilobytes instead of gigabytes. But even the most ardent retro computer aficionado usually allows for a bit of modern convenience.

Enter the mouSTer. This tiny device converts a common USB HID mouse into something older computers can understand. It even supports using Sony’s PlayStation 4 controller as a generic game pad. While the firmware is still getting tweaked, the team has confirmed its working on several classic machines and believe it should work on many more. Considering the prices that some of these old peripherals command on the second hand market, using a USB mouse or controller on your vintage computer isn’t just more convenient, but will likely be a lot cheaper.

Confirmed retrocomputing superfan [Drygol] is a member of the team working on mouSTer, and in a recent post to his retrohax blog, he talks a bit about what’s happened since his last update over the summer. He also talks a bit about the challenges they’ve faced to get it into production. Even if you’re not into poking around on vintage computers, there are lessons to be learned here about what it takes to move from a handful of prototypes to something you can actually sell to the public.

We especially liked the details about the mouSTer enclosure, or lack thereof. Originally [Drygol] says they were going to have the cases injection molded, but despite initial interest from a few companies they talked to, nobody ended up biting because it needed to be done with relatively uncommon low pressure injection. While 3D printing is still an option, the team ended up using clear heatshrink tubing to create a simple conformal protective shell over the electronics. Personally we think it looks great like this, but it sounds like this is only a temporary solution until something a bit more robust can be implemented.

As you might imagine we’ve seen DIY projects that aimed to bring modern input devices to vintage computers like the Atari ST, but the diminutive proportions of the mouSTer and the fact that it’s a turn-key product is sure to appeal to those who want to minimize headaches when working with their classic gear.

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