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I'm enthusiastic to find your site exclusively dedicated to this 1977 marvel : The SOL 20.

I got my kit as a Christmas present from my family in 1977. It cost, including tax and shipping $1,770.00. Within a week it was assembled, the little B/W tv-set adapted and it worked as promised - like a charm. I'm, not quite sure why nobody in the writing of history gives any credit to this little company "Processor Technology" to have created, if I am not completely wrong, the first "useable" home computer.

Of course, it wasn't perfect. It was supposed to come with a tape based BASIC, - but that came a few months later and worked at anyones desire.

I am writing this because the SOL 20, as I am aware, has become the first PC to be used in an industrial environment. At the time I was working in a shipyard with some 400 employees and oversaw accounting and data processing with a Honeywell mainframe.

Once an adaptation to 8" diskettes was available, that must have been end of 1978, I bought on the market some 10 SOL 20s and used them as a basic input devices of all data, personnel, accounting, etc. to the Honeywell mainframe. My punchgirls absolutely loved it ! Of course I had to write a conversion program from ACCII to EBCDIC in machine language - no mayor problem.

Then I used three SOL 20s on Towboats running on the Mississippi river to measure by a combination of the twist of the mainshafts and connected fuel flow meters the total horsepower output of the engines and fuel consumption in order to optimize cost per mile of the towboats. This was done using the then available BASIC burnt into a 16K memory board and connected to a thermosensitive printer.

The result was that after any trip of each towboat Mississippi river up from New Orleans to Minneapolis or Springfield and back, (a trip of some 3 weeks) I received a daily print-out of (hour by hour) engine rpm, fuel consumption, horsepower generated and total economy. I sincerely believe that after some resistance from the traditionally minded captains we generated an economy of at least 10% of then rather expensive fuel, which made all the difference to the bottom line of the company.

After 30 years I am still looking for anyone with any of the early computers to have made an economic impact thanks to one of these early computers. They were, as I understand it hobby ware except the SOL 20 from Processor Technology properly used.

If this story helps you in any way to highlight the merits of this little marvel I will be happy.

Built a sol20 from scratch in 76' from a board and manual - no kit, begged probably the last personality module from a "janitor" at processor tech who was cleaning out the place after they had actually closed, without that would have never got it working, powersupply was hacked together from an erectorset to hold the parts, homemade case, etc., scrounged chips for a year on my meager budget, nothing worked, days with a scope and testing to get it to run, learned to prgram in machine and basic from that sol20, modified a junk selectric with papertape reader/writer to interface and print at about 8 char/sec, wrote code to troubleshoot s100 memory boards for my sol, swung a deal/swap to get a Northstart drive and board, figured out the interface to use that disc drive - wow - big league then with a whole 60K of disc space per floppy..., built a radiation detector that would print plots of x-ray machine beam outputs. built a reader/writer s100 board to copy/burn 2708, 2716 and 2732 chips to copy atari 2600 games and made a bunch of those (should have been caught and jailed I guess), hooked up that sol20 to a lot of stuff over the years and eventually learned to work on everything short of full mainframes, , software, etc., all thanks to that old Sol20. was the best and most influential computer in my life to this day!

Wow!... I learned programming on a SOL. I built mine as a kit back in '78 or '79. It got me started in the computer field. The SOL was the best of any of them in that time. Well designed and rock solid except for the 16kb dynamic memory module which was a disaster. I wish I had mine back... sold it for $600 many years ago.

In the late 1970s I'd designed and implemented a distributed Medical Genetics database and reporting system in which the SOL-20 played a central role.

In my laboratory I began by using SOL-20 machines to run a highly customized version of PILOT for local input and initial processing of medical genetics data. This was very convenient for daily reports etc. Long-term though, the data set would be massive; well beyond the limited storage and processing capabilities of the SOL.

The UC San Francisco (Medical Center) had an IBM System/370 running RAMIS II (tm), a then-new relational-like database system. Both largely were used with card stacks for input and line-printers for output.

Terminal connectivity was only slowly expanding, and there were only a few "modem" I/O lines. Nonetheless, I wangled an allotment of "time on the machine" via phone modem amounting to only a few minutes each day. But fortunately, in the aggregate - I could break it up any way I pleased.

So I devised a database structure in RAMIS appropriate to the data entered/stored on the SOL - faking a relational system as I did so. Then, via a custom 2-way communication driver written in 8080 assembler on the SOL, I "slaved" the IBM/370 for a few minutes each day.

On demand, it became both a "big hard-drive" and a fast analytical engine for the SOL. My locally processed data on the SOL could be uploaded to the IBM for both "unlimited" off-line central storage and into RAMIS II for more sophisticated analysis either on- or off-line.

Another custom "command & control" driver allowed my remote SOL to be a *very* "smart terminal", able to query RAMIS for sophisticated analysis and reports from the entire huge database, either for display/printing or further local analysis.

All very cool. It netted me several fast promotions. And it spread!

By the time I left UCSF six years later the system included seven laboratories in three States. As many as a dozen or more SOL-20s (I never really knew) were operating as a networked consortium sharing a common database.

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Begun a few years earlier, the work was first published only in 1978; more followed:

Loughman, W. and D.C. Mosher: A New Cytogenetics/ Medical Genetics Computerized Data Management System. (Abstract). Am. J. Hum. Gen. 30: 87A (1978).

Mitchell, J.A., W.D. Loughman, and C.J. Epstein: GENFILES - An Information Network in Medical Genetics. In: Proceedings of the Sixth Illinois Conference on Medical Information Systems. Urbana, Illinois (1980).

Loughman, W.D., J.A. Mitchell, D.C. Mosher, and C.J. Epstein: GENFILES: A Computerized Medical Genetics Information Network. I. An Overview. Am. J. Med. Gen. 7:243-250 (1980).

Mitchell, J.A., W.D. Loughman, and C.J. Epstein: GENFILES: A Computerized Medical Genetics Information Network. II. MEDGEN: The Clinical Genetics System. Am. J. Med. Gen. 7:251-266 (1980).

Mitchell, J.A., C.J. Epstein, and W.D. Loughman: GENFILES: A Computerized Medical Genetics Information Network. III. CHROMO: The Cytogenetics Database. Am. J. Med. Gen. 7:267-278 (1980).

Mitchell, J.A., W.D. Loughman, and C.J. Epstein: A Medical Genetics Information System. J. Clin. Computing 11(1):1-43 (1982).

Additionally, on or about 1978-79, I was an ad hoc "new developments" speaker at that year's IBM SHARE Conference in San Francisco. ...Their "token user", as the introducer put it.

-------- --------

NB:

John Starkweather inter alia was the inventor/maintainer of PILOT and Director of UCSF's Computer Center. Doug Mosher was a very Senior Programmer at UCSF, my direct mentor, and he who first advised my use of microprocessor computers. Apple was his choice; SOL-20 was mine. Charles Epstein (my boss) was Director of UCSF Medical Genetics; later and consequently(?) one of the "Unabomber's" unfortunate targets. I was the newly-appointed Director of the UCSF Cytogenetics Lab at the time. Otherwise a real newbie in the computer world - until I purchased my first SOL.

- Bill

Have original SOL 20 from 1977 ...think I still have the original tapes.

verry good

Great Site. I'm working on getting my IMSAI 8080 working again. It used the SOL OS. I'm hoping the old TAPE I have will still work. It's very old just like me ;-).

Really enjoyed the site. I cut some of my early microprocessor teeth on IMSAI and Processor Technology. I used to own a Sol-20 with Electric Pencil, a modified Selectric for printer, various games and the Music system. A LOT of fun and learning was to be had there. I still have an audio recording of some of the music from the computer. Thanks for the diligent effort.

I have my original Sol-20 (1977) with 48K of RAM. With the Sol I have 3-Micropolis 90K single sided, single density drives with CP/M, I still have the full general accounting system my partner and I wrote. Plus a program that ran my mushroom farm. Thanks for the nice site

I just wanted to compliment you on such a great collection of Sol-related info. While I never had one personally, it was the crown jewel of our computer club in 1977, and your site and emulator have brought back a lot of great memories.

(and I never thought I'd be able to show the kids Trek-80 in action - still one of my favourite memories!)

Thanks again!

In 1976 I bought a new typesetting system for our weekly newspaper. It consisted of three video terminals interfaced to a computerized phototypesetter. My former interest in amateur radio was revived when the need to maintain (read: change chips) the terminals and typesetter fell to me and I discovered computers. I bought the Heathkit Basic Programming Language course and after completing it began looking for something to practice my newfound skills on. The nearest computer was several hundred miles from our remote community but I ran into a friend who had picked up some copies of an electronics magazine in the big city. I saw the Sol-20 advertised and called the company in California (long distance wasn't cheap in those days) to find a local distributor and was given a dealer in Vancouver, BC. I promptly found a reason to make a business trip to town and bought myself a computer kit and small Electrolux monitor.

I'd built many kits in the past while tinkering with radios and felt confident I could tackle this job with ease. There were some setbacks, some caused by the fact I'm colour blind and should have used a meter more often to check the correct resistors, but in the end I had a working computer.

I played with it for a while, practicing with the tape-loaded Basic and shooting aliens in one of the two games that came with it, but soon began looking for serious uses for what was clearly a very capable machine. I took it to the office and wrote programs to estimate job printing, calculate payroll and budget expenses. It proved so effective that I felt justified in spending as much again on a couple of ThinkerToy disc drives, for which I had to learn how to write drivers to run the CP/M operating system. The Digital Equipment Ltd. dealer said their mini-computer printer wouldn't interface to a microcomputer but I was tired of copying off the screen and succeeded in hacking it. I was off to the races.

From 1977 to 1986 the Sol-20 handled the financing and accounting for the newspaper, gradually accumulating a full range of software both purchased (and often modified) and home made. When we sold out the new owners declined to include the computer system so I kept it. In the years since I have had to defend it every time we've moved as my wife repeats her lament: "When are you going to get rid of that old junk?"

I haven't fired it up since putting it away in 1986, but some day I hope to sit down with my son the physicist and see if we can shoot some aliens.

Great website with lots of good information. I wish I had a Sol20.

Have had for years and now it's time to go a SOL-20 with the following 2 16KRA memory boards, 1 Problem Solvers Systems Inc. 16 K memory board, 1 Morrow Disk Jockey 2S/B disk controller with 2 8" floppy disks.

In order to list this I have a few questions the Module on the main board # 2708 what is it called. The 16KRA boards have had the data delay modules replaced. Were the a "bad Batch" or a reacquiring problem??

Comments reply to webmaster@a-2-562.org

My first experience with the SOL was actually in high school back in 1978. My electronics teacher at Skyline High (Mr. Cleveland) had bought a SOL to teach the class some basic computer ideas. It was heads and tails above the Western Union teletype machine we had in our computer class. The WU machine is where I played my first game of Star Trek trying to blow up the Klingons, no bidirectional printing, one line printed at a time. Took a while to see if you ever hit anything. The SOL though was actually really a great learning tool for us in High School, I remember the unit being blue with wood sides and a big keyboard. Our monitor was a square monochrome unit that was maybe 9" which sat on the top of the keyboard unit. As I recall it had like a 4-bit microprocessor (4004) to run the programs. Very cool stuff for the day.

Hi Jim -

It has certainly been more than a few years! I visited again after seeing a post mentioning the SOL and Electric Pencil in the classiccmp.org digest today. Thank you for continuing to maintain and update this site. I still have my SOL (and even found another a few years ago) but haven't turned it on in more years than I can remember. Maybe it's time to dust it off again.

Best wishes,

Bob

I bought and built (from the kit) a SOL 20 in 1976. IIRC 4,000 solder joints on the motherboard. I think 2,000 solder joints on each of the two 8k static ram boards I had (all sockets, using 2102 chips.) Largely cured me of wanting to solder anything. When I moved on to other computers I lent it to a friend (never expecting to get it back) and never did see it again. I'll download the emulator in the future and give it a try,

Thanks for making this site! Much appreciated!

Tom

great

SOL-20 builder from 1977....have original Manual and tapes....but looks like Keyboard problem has bit mine since it has not been used since 1987....Thanks for the great information on your website!

Jeff

N5ITU

Never saw a Sol 20, but I read this article today.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/07/living-with-a-computer/306063/

Somewhere around 1976 or 1977 my best friend was riding a bus down Mission street and saw a store front with a sign that said "The Computer Store of San Francisco" as the bus left the stop on 7th street. He got off at 6th sttreet and walked back to see what the hell this was.

Inside he found a CompuColor 2000, an Apple I, Altairs, Imsai's, and several SOL-20s as well as magazines, etc.

The next day I joined him in a revisit to this magical place.

Karl and I became the "Store Teenagers" and hung out there learning about computers and programming on the SOL-20, etc.

Oh yes, also lots of games of TREK80 and TARGET.

I just acquired some computers from a storage spot in Santa Barbara and within was a Sol 20. I purchased a Vector Graphic, new in 1980, so I was familiar with the brand, but did not know the details. The Sol 20 is a great website.

I have a SOL-20, with monitor, and pennywhistle 103 modem, sitting in my storage. Haven't powered it up since about 1992. I'm wondering what I might have to replace before applying power and frying things.

Thanks for putting this together, My high school had one of the earliest SOL-20s (1977? 1978?) along with the North Star drives (and later a North Star Horizon). Somewhere lost in time there's a machine language tank game that one student wrote, as well as a CP/M bios which would detect whether it was running on a Horizon or on a SOL-20 and switch configurations automatically. I'm still unreasonably proud of writing the latter -- quite a bit of functionality to cram into 256 bytes.

Great web site. I have a SOL-20 that I built around 1977. I also have an IMSAI 8080 that I built in 1976.

Amazing trip in computer history. Thanks for the great collection of informations.

Thanks for maintaining this site. I have visited quite often and do have one Sol-20 I am still in the process of restoring. I also have a working Sol-20/Helios II system that works beautifully after replacing some capacitors to restore the drive. Pictures I took some time back are here if you're interested.

http://vintagecomputer.ca/?computers=processor-technology-helios-ii

I am not an original owner/builder but am fascinated by computers of this era. Thanks again.

THERE IT IS! I could never remember what that PC was that my dad bought when I was a kid. I started my programming on this old boy. Thanks for making this site. I am going to start looking for one of these right now.

Fantastic resource. Thanks for maintaining it. In 1981-82 we had a Sol 20 with HELIOS II disk drive in the then-embryonic computer room in Semiahmoo High School, White Rock, B.C., Canada, which was used to introduce students to computers and programming in BASIC until we got the first 8K Commodore PET later. It sparked my interest in computers as a 17 yr old which has continued (rabidly) until this very day.

Our HELIOS II drive was *notoriously* unreliable, and the support tech was coming in weekly to fix the thing. The school used it for a few support programs (including a Library book inventory/ control program written by yours truly), and when the school got rid of it, I inherited all the manuals for everything which unfortunately were later lost in a storage incident.

I hope to acquire a system soon with the HELIOS II and put it back in commission - if only so I can remember all the swear words I threw at the thing in Grade 11 :)

chancewolf@me.com

Apparently Steve Jobs used Sol 20 ideas when creating the Apple I and Apple II computers.

Everyone needs to look high and low to find ALL the stuff for this computer so it can be integrated into this website: [1] Contents of Proteus software collections #4, #5, #6, #9, #10 [2] source code to Processor Tech software [3] Your files, programs, disks, tapes, WAV files of tapes [4] Original documents and manuals [5] More personality module ROMs

The SOL-20 appears to be a much more frendlier alternative to the Altair, IMSAI, and other S-100 computers. And this site presents computer scientists with a wonderful Solace emulator with complete source code to improve and explore.

It would be great to see some new programs, games and modules created. And I would like to see all the 8080 stuff ported to this emulator.

Great site! Thanks Mr Battle! I found this web-site a few years ago when I was restoring my Sol-20. I come back from time to time and always enjoy the new information that is periodically added. I bought a Sol-20 a few years ago and set it up every now and then to relive the early days of computing with my sons and grandsons. They like to hear the stories of how computers and computer gaming have evolved over the years. They get a kick out of playing Target. The latest Sol project I have in mind is to make a reproduction Sol-20 manual. Anyone ever make their own manual?

Hi,

Long time since I (sadly) sold the Sol-20 I built from a kit. My first computer was a MITS Altair 8800, then I got a Motorola MEK6800D1 (still have it), then after selling the Altair I had money to build the Sol-20 and like a fool sold it to get an Apple II. I had lots of fun with the Apple but wish I had kept the Altair and Sol-20.

Anyway now I've been developing beginner robotics S.T.E.A.M. program for young children 5+ ... and any other beginners.

I guess I should mention that I am selling off the rest of the vintage S-100 and Apple stuff I have to get the seed money I need to build-up a couple hundred RoboGuts™ Kits so I can start teaching classes at the local Boys & Girls clubs, Scouts, YMCA etc...

http://www.brainless.org/MultiMedia/Documents/Computer/DocumentBin/

No I do not want to break up this bundle.

I have 2 of the Sol 20's and SW and manuals... what are you still looking for?

I had two Sol 20 computers, just sold one of them. I still have lots of other old equipment.

Justin.

I needed the manual for the 8K Static Ram board (version with the switches at the top right corner) and found it in your "Manuals" download section. Thanks. Nice looking website; I've stored its URL in my Vintage Systems links.

My Grandfather had built one of the Sol-20 from the kit. The computer has been sitting in my grandmother's garage since the day they upgraded from it. I finally decided to take it down and start working with it. Haven't quite figured it out yet, but Ill get there.

Thank you for the awesome resources!

I built my first SOL-20 in 1976, and thus began my career in related computer industry. I still have the original with many upgrades! My thanks to the early pioneers for bringing at great product to us hobbyists.

Rick

Hello Everyone:

I remembering playing Targ on the Sol-20 that my Dad bought. I just found The Sol-20, cassettes, and users manual. Not sure if it works and don't have the power supply cord. What kind do I need and where could I find one. I have a monitor, cords, and cassette player. It is in Colorado. If anybody is interested in buying, let me know. Thanks.

I was just a baby when these things came aroud, so I never tinkered with any of these computers, and I've never seen a Sol. I never even heard about the Sol-20 until some time ago when I started digging into the history of one of my hobbies, which is computer chess. I am trying to emulate some of the old systems, inlcuding mainframe-stuff from the 60s and 70s. Some of those things are a pain to get working and operate. But then I came across 8080 Chess for Sol-20. It was significant because it was the first micro computer chess program entered into competitions with chess programs running on larger computers, in the 8th North American Computer Chess championship. It even scored a point, although the way this happened was rather embarassing for anybody involved: In the first round, 8080 Chess was completely outplayed by it's opponent, Ostrich running on a custom multi-processor beast. But right before Ostrich was about to deliver the fatal blow, the program locked up due to a bug, and 8080 Chess was awarded the full point.

Digging around for the program and emulator I found this site, which contained both an easy to use emulator, the full program _and_ full documentation! I wish all of these programs were this easy to get up and running today! I've played quite a bit with this program. Chess-wise, it is quite weak, probably on par with the more commonly known Sargon which came out the next year. The interface also has some quirks, such as the cumbersome control character commands used for special moves and operations such as castling, and square names not being rotated when you swap sides. But the documentation is a pleasant surprise; It is very thorough, and even quite entertaining in places.

So, a big thank you for maintaining this site, keeping the Sol-20 legacy alive and introducing it to generations that knew nothing about these computers when they were around!

Thank you for keeping all this alive! Can we port the simulator to Linux? Windows.... just isn't the right spirit!

I still have some punched tape off of a TTY33 that was connected to 4 SOLs, in a youth club in Jerusalem, 1979/...

I still have the Sol-20 I bought back in 1979, I think. Someone else assembled the main board, I bought that from him and bought the rest of the kit and assembled it. It is in my closet, I'm sure it no longer operates, it's had a rough storage life.

I would like very much to find another keyboard, a modern USB one, that feels similar to the Sol-20 keyboard. Most of the ones I've encountered are loud and feel rough and sound echo-y.

I have a SOL-20 which I Purchased January 1, 1978 in CA (working on remembering the computer store, in the LA Area.).

Since I celebrated my 80th this year, it is time to reduce my technical hording. Today, I started on cleaning up and restoring the SOL back to Original, however after finding your Site and reading a bit, it may be that not restoring or at least providing the Mod Parts to a new owner would be best. The SOL was used from day one by two Engineers one S/W and one H/W. Modified with a front Panel Display (Hex) and Address Switches. Bus expansion and a big 5V Supply also.

I have Photo/Video-Documented what I have as well as what I am doing. In the interest of finding a buyer I would be pleased to share that information with you and your associates should you be interested.

Best Regards,

Ben Bibb, EE, NCE

Cedar Park, TX

512.219.7374

Glad I found this. The Sol-20 is what fired up a 36-year career in the computer industry. I still have the entire original working setup - including the cassette recorder I used back in 1977 for I/O (I don’t have the original AM/FM radio I used for sound effects - you know, phasers and stuff with for-next loops - but I can probably find one!). I fired the system up about a decade ago, and we recently moved, so I plan to do it again soon. I have all of the original manuals and a lot of software - so as I “poke” around, if I find something that isn’t here, I’ll post it. Here’s hoping my cassettes haven’t degraded.

I had a SOL-20. I was a Ph.D. taking a hiatus from academe due to my wife's job starting in 1983. My father bought it for me as a Ph.D. completion present from a techie he knew. I used it to write and publish four research articles, which gave me the opportunity to return to get a professorial job in 1987 that I maintained for 31 years before retiring, plus the beginning of what became my first book I bought it from a techie who jury-rigged connections to two 5 1/4 floppy disk reader/writers. I also had a card that gave be CP/M which in turn allowed me to write some simple statistical programs in BASIC that were incredibly helpful. I had WordPerfect 2 which took up 56k of the 64k available RAM. Unfortunately the techie mailed it to me, and in so doing some of the extra cards became dislodged and scratched the motherboard. As a consequence, the computer eventually became dysfunctional and I ended up replacing it with an Apple 2.

Years later my wife and I were at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and they had an excellent multi-room exhibit of the history of computers, starting with looms that worked by what were equivalent to data cards. We got to a room with early microcomputers. Most were on a table and labeled; Altair, Commodore, Apple 1, etc. Under one of the tables, on the floor, unmarked, was a Sol. I was thrilled to see it again. I'm sorry that it became dysfunctional, because if it hadn't I'd still have it to play with.

Charlie Pavitt, chazzq@udel.edu

I purchased my Sol-20 from a chemical company in 1980. They were having trouble with it and upgraded to an Apple setup. The computer would work but after a while it would fail. I found out that it was a heat problem. They had 4 memory boards in it and they were producing heat to beat the band. After designing a single board 48K memory board, these 4 boards could be removed and the machine worked great again. It has a Sanyo monitor and 3, 5 1/4 inch hard sector disk drives. There is also a serial board to drive a ASR 33 teletype. I have a few programs, BASIC and mail merge, plus a few others I do not remember. As time wore on, the keyboard started to fail, one key at a time. Now it is not usable. Hopefully this winter I want to try and replace the foam disk and insulators and maybe this machine will come back to life. Anyway, it's a neat little machine and I had a lot of fun with it, maybe again.

I built several SOL-20 on contract to Computer Mart Orange and/or Byte Shop Westminster. I was always impressed that everything fit together well. I rarely had a difficult time bringing up a new SOL-20. Of note were those SOLID walnut end caps. They came fairly well sanded but the wood was bare. I would do a little finish sanding and then rub linseed oil deeply into the panels to make them look gorgeous. I was impressed by the capacitive keyboard and at the time, I thought it would last forever. Wrong!

I've just become the steward of two Sol-20s and a Helios II drive. This site is invaluable as I am new to the Sol platform, having spent most of my time on Apple II. Thanks for putting this site together.

I came across a picture of the Sol-20 on Pinterest while looking at 1970s computers, and was filled with absolute delight as I scrolled through this amazing website! I was with my partner at the time as we both share a love of old computers and instantly ran the emulator, it is wonderful! The amount of dedication and love for these computers that has been put into this site is admirable and made my month!

Thank you so much!

I recently pulled my Sol-20 out of storage. It powered up and worked fine except the keyboard had gone bad due to degradation of the original foam pads under each key. I was able to pull the keyboard apart and renew the pads. The computer works like a charm now. I connected up an old tape deck and was able to load programs from my collection of cassette tapes. I need to convert these tapes to .wav file!

I'm in the process of making a Sol-20 reproduction (https://hackaday.io/project/181676-sol-20-reproduction). This amazing site is making my job so much easier. Thank you so much Jim for all your hard work in producing this incredible Sol-20 archive.

Just taken my ole Sol-20 out of storage after 35 odd yrs packed away. Don't have any of my original docs or notes, I also suffer from CRS(Can't Remember Shit), so I'm kind of flying blind now at 70 y.o. :) Trying to gather together the essential docs, but without my old North* MDS, i'm not sure if it will boot or not. Not to that stage yet.

Thanks for all your efforts on this site Jim.

Rick

Looks like I'd been here before. :)

During my summer break from college in 1976 I convinced my parents to help buy a Sol-20 kit while we sat home all summer watching the bicentennial celebration on TV. I ended up using it for a senior project for my BSEE degree and my professor initially gave me a D since I didn't show all the work. I had to go back to school during the summer and explained microcomputer and programming to pass the class. I burned into EPROM the most common tools (assembler and Basic) so I didn't have to load them from tape.

In the early 80's while working at HP's RF & Microwave division I headed up the IEEE Special Interest Sphere on Microprocessor in the Silicon Valley. This led to a long career including co-founding PDI, the CG animation studio that created films like Shrek. I have met Lee Felsenstein multiple times. Much thanks to him and the Sol-20 community during its inception for a young kid like me to explore a whole new world.

Hi, I recently converted my Altair-Duino Pro computer into a Processor Technology Sol-20 computer. Now I've started playing some of the games included on the initial .DSK and I'm hoping somebody else has other compatible .DSKs that contain more useful utility and music programs and especially games.

I have the info to convert an Altair-Duino computer into a Sol-20 posted: http://www.brainless.org/Altair/BeginnerPage.html

I hope I can add some .DSKs or individual programs to my repository too. http://www.brainless.org/Altair/Repository.html

wperko at the URL ...

Something I plan to do in the future is add programs and hardware for speech, singing and controlling robotic systems.