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NOTE: Lon neglected, many potential updates to this page have occurred
since the last entries. I will attempt to add these as I revise the web
site.
-trf 2-21-2010
Latest additions...
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Feature Magazine Article!
Details! magazine published a short photo article
for their June/July 2003 edition about the 20th Anniversary of the MGM
movie
"Wargames", with main emphasis on the
availability of the new IMSAI Series Two. I was interviewed at
length via telephone and e-mail regarding my contributions of equipment
and technical development of minor, but significant elements of the
original script. We shipped an IMSAI Series Two First Edition to New
York for a professional photo shoot at their headquarters. The final
result is quite off-beat and a bit fanciful, but seems to be garnering
interest from some unexpected quarters.
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IMSAI and the "Wargames Computer" mentioned
on television
Hello, I thought you might want
to know IMSAI is listed as one of collector Sellam Ismail's favorite
vintage computers in this article (which includes a link to your site):
(link inactive)
If you'd like to link to this article
for somewhere on your site, we'd be most honored. (Also, we plan
to do a short feature on the movie "War Games" this Friday, in which we
plan to mention IMSAI's role.)
Thanks!- Josh Lawrence
The Screen
Savers
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My thanks to S2/FE purchaser Mark Rosenthal
for notice that we've once again been mentioned in Dr. Dobbs
magazine (September 2003 issue, News & Views section on
page 14). I suspect it to be the work of Editor
Michael Swaine (also co-author of the authoritative history of
the birth of the "personal computer" in the 1984 and 2000 editions
of
"Fire In The Valley"),
who has been a subtle booster of the IMSAI for almost twenty years
that I know of.
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1975
MCS-80 Intel 8080 Microcomputer Systems User's Manual
Through the kind auspices of Richard Lehman, I was able to
make a photocopy of this hard-to-find book, and have recently
acquired an original for our archives. An Adobe PDF copy is
available for download.
I've provided some minimal but useful information
on the 8080 Microprocessor specifications from the 1976 Intel Data
Catalogue in an Adobe PDF file at:
http://www.imsai.net/support/device_specs/Intel8080.pdf
More complete information on the system and
support chips used with it are contained in the "Intel 8080
Microcomputer Systems User's Manual" (© Intel Corporation,
September 1975). This seems to be the only place on the 'web
where a copy can be found, at least for now! I believe it to
be complete, and blank pages were NOT copied, thus the occasional
missing page. Warning! It's BIG, so is presented in
four parts at:
http://www.imsai.net/support\device_specs\Intel8080Manual-1.pdf
http://www.imsai.net/support\device_specs\Intel8080Manual-2.pdf
http://www.imsai.net/support\device_specs\Intel8080Manual-3.pdf
http://www.imsai.net/support\device_specs\Intel8080Manual-4.pdf
If you have a request for other obsolete chip data
(devices used on the early S-100 boards), e-mail me and I'll do
what I can to help you out.
Wanted:
Copies of
S-100 Board and System Manuals
Many IMSAI systems were configured with non-IMSAI boards and
peripherals. I've had many requests from folks asking about
availability of technical information, but have been unable to
provide much assistance.
Herb Johnson (Dr. S-100)
has been of great help to me and many others in providing a copy
service for obsolete boards and equipment. Not to diminish
his value as a resource, I'd like to offer Adobe PDF copies of
manuals and technical documents for download as a support service
for those folks wishing to get the technical details needed to
repair or configure their systems. I'm seeking manuals and
schematics for all S-100 bus systems, boards, and the peripherals
commonly used with them.
Original documents will be returned upon request, and existing
scanned or machine readable files fitting this request are
welcome, and all contributions will be acknowledged and credited
as posted.
Our technical support page will be updated to reflect available
documents. Additionally, we'll post a
DOCUMENTATION WANTED column for the benefit of
individuals in urgent need of a specific document. Your
contributions are most welcome.
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Major Historical Update!
The IMSAI 8080 has often been derisively referred
to as the first computer clone of the Altair 8800. In fact, the
IMSAI 8080 existed at least 6 months before the Altair! On June 18,
2002 Doug Earp provided details to the story of IMSAI's earliest
beginnings, and I've posted those developments, along with a very rare
image of Charles Tandy's (Radio Shack) "IMSAC" version of the
IMSAI 8080.
Click here for more details,
and the origin and meaning of the letters IMSAI
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Digital
Scrapbook:
A gallery of people behind IMSAI- customers, friends, and
associates, past and present
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My thanks to Kurt Freiberger,
Brad Webb (Online Writer),
and Leon Brooks who have
informed me that I have been "Slashdotted",
and Dr. Dobbs Journal has once again provided a kind mention
(http://www.ddj.com).
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There are many perceptions of IMSAI, past and present.
Few have come close to getting it right, mainly because the IMSAI phenomenon
affected employees, management, dealers, and clients in such a different,
complex and intertwined manner. Image was the strength, execution often
the weakness. In this April 2001 article from Forbes, IMSAI is
compared with IBM, Apple Computer, Atari, and
National Semiconductor as a cult:
http://www.forbes.com/asap/2001/0402/Cult_xtraCrosby.html
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