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Notes |
Manufacturer |
Southwestern Technical Products Corporation (US) (An established maker of quality hi-fi equipment.) |
Model |
6800 |
Date Launched |
July 1975 |
Price |
$395 as a kit, |
Microprocessor type |
Motorola 6800 @ 0.98 MHz |
ROM size |
512 bytes containing simple operating system 'MikBug' (supplied by Motorola), including tape load/save routines. |
Standard RAM |
2 kilobytes |
Maximum RAM |
32 kilobytes using additional expansion boards and power supply. |
Keyboard type |
Various, typewriter style |
Supplied language |
None |
Text resolution |
32 x 16 characters with TV display adaptor |
Graphics resolution |
96 x 64 pixels using optional GT-6144 graphics terminal card costing $98.50. |
Colours available |
Monochrome |
Example Screenshot |
|
Sound |
None |
Cassette load speed |
300 baud with optional AC-30 cassette interface at $79.50 (£65). |
Dimensions (mm) |
384 x 387 x 178 |
Special features |
Up to 7 expansion cards could be plugged in. |
Good points |
Could be expanded by the addition of serial and parallel interfaces, (low resolution) graphics, a low-cost ($250) dot matrix printer, even disk drives. |
Bad points |
The basic system was not really usable and several extra components (keyboard and interface, display adaptor, cassette adaptor) had to be added to make a full computer. |
How successful? |
Uncertain, but the range of accessories suggests it was at least moderately successful. |
Comments |
Southwestern Technical Products seem to have provided good support to owners of the 6800, with a full range of expansion options to turn it into a genuinely useful system, whereas some other manufacturers only seemed interested in selling a base unit. |
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