Vintage 1978 Synertek Systems Corp SYM - 1 MOS 6502 KIM - 1 Work - Alike, Decent Shape




Item History & Price

Information:
Reference Number: Avaluer:418866
Original Description:
When MOS Technology created the 6502 CPU, they designed and sold the KIM-1 development board to showcase their new central processor unit (CPU.) MOS was marketing to engineers to show them how easy it was to use the new CPU chip set. Unexpectedly, hobbyists discovered the board, and realized that they could obtain an entire working computer for a very low price. Competitors stepped in to help meet demand, and Synertek Systems Corp introduced the SYM-1 in 1978. This system was actually ...produced by the same guy who produced the guy, Ray Holt, who also designed the first chip set used in the Central Air Data Computer for the F-14 Tomcat.

One pretty cool capability of the SYM-1 was its ability to allow an oscilloscope to be added to provide a 32 character display under software control. Having a couple 'scopes, I wanted to try this. Unfortunately time (and money) has run out before my chance.

This vintage system was obtained when a computer museum had to get rid of all of their exhibits. I really loved the idea of the KIM-1, and was excited when I was able to obtain a SYM-1 work-alike. However, after five years of underemployment, I have to sell off some of my toys (err, computer gear.)

Condition: The board itself looks to be in great shape. The board is clean and has no breaks, there are no corrosion sites, no broken or cut traces, no wires soldered on and almost all of the chips are present. The keypad and the display 7-segment LEDs are all present and look to be in good condition. There is even an optional Intel 2716 EPROM installed (no, I have no information on what that EPROM contains - however, it does not have any cover over the quartz window, so the program/data may be faded.)

Unfortunately both the SY6502 and the SY6532 are missing from this computer. The good news is that this is not like the KIM-1 in that the SYM-1 does not use any unobtanium parts, they are both pretty common parts. I found the 6502 CPU in Jameco, Mouser and several places here on e-Bay. The 6532 was a bit more difficult to source, but I did find a few on e-Bay. Check on pinball repair sites - the 6502 was used in several pinball machines.

Web Documentation: Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the SYM-1. There is a bit of an issue with introduction dates: the KIM-1 article says that it was introduced in 1976, but the SYM-1 (which was an improved KIM-1") was supposed to be introduced in 1975. My research (and what little my memory recalls) says that the SYM-1 was introduced in 1978. Either way, if you look just below the keypad in the photo above, you can see that this particular board was printed in 1978. In Wikipedia's External links section, there are links to a site with several programs, in ROM images and another with description of a full DOS for the SYM-1.

There is a good story of the development of the KIM-1 in chapter 1.5 (Tim and Kim) of the book “Typewriters and Adding Machines”. The chapter is hosted on the Retrocomputacion site (http://retrocomputacion.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/ch001_5_TIM-KIM.pdf". Sorry, but e-Bay does not allow off-site links to documentation any more - you can thank the idiot scammers who destroy things for all of us. If you want any links here, send me a message, and I will try to send them - if e-Bay does not have to block links in messaging, too.) Rich Cini also has a lot of information about the SYM-1 on his site. Take a look at Rich’s Documents Archive (http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/systems.htm, Google "Rich Cini’s Documents Archive" and select the one that is titled: "Rich Cini's Classic Computing - Systems - ClassicCMP".)

Unfortunately, due to the age of this computer, I cannot guarantee that it will work when the missing 6502 and 6532 are installed, nor can I accept returns.



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