Mark 8 2016 Style

In the mid-1970’s there were several U.S.-based hobby electronics magazines, including Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics. Most people know that in 1975, Popular Electronics ran articles about the Altair 8800 and launched the personal computer industry. But they weren’t the first. That honor goes to Radio Electronics, that ran articles about the Mark 8 — based on the Intel 8008 — in 1974. There are a few reasons, the Altair did better in the marketplace. The Mark 8 wasn’t actually a kit. You could buy the PC boards, but you had to get the rest of the parts yourself. You also had to buy the plans. There wasn’t enough information in the articles to duplicate the build and — according to people who tried, maybe not enough information even in the plans.

[Henk Verbeek] wanted his own Mark 8 so he set about building one. Of course, coming up with an 8008 and some of the other chips these days is quite a challenge (and not cheap). He developed his own PCBs (and has some extra if anyone is looking to duplicate his accomplishment). There’s also a video, you can watch below.

If you are interested in the history of the Mark 8, there are a few sites around that remember. Because of the challenge of sourcing the parts and completing the project, there were probably only a handful of these completed, despite about 7,500 sets of plans and 400 sets of PC boards sold. There was a similar kit from Scelbi that predated the Mark 8, but they only sold about 200 of them.

If you are interested in this era of microprocessor design, be sure you didn’t miss this post. If you do source an 8008 and you lose interest in the Mark 8, you can always build the obligatory clock.

Filed under: computer hacks, Microcontrollers