The forgotten Q1: The world's first microcomputer?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- I explore an exquisitely rare Q1 microcomputer, the line that started the microcomputer revolution back in 1972! Unlike the Datapoint 2200, which was first released with a CPU made of discrete TTL logic, the Q1 initially featured Intel's 8008 microprocessor, therefore being the first true microcomputer line in the world. Join me so we can together learn more about this galant and trail-blazing, albeit forgotten, family of computers.
The Q1 project homepage: www.thebyteatt...
The Q1 project repository: github.com/The...
Q1 sales brochure on bitsavers.org: www.bitsavers.o...
Q1 entry at old-computers.com: www.old-comput...
Copyright © 2022 by Bernardo Kastrup. All rights reserved.
The UK government pumped a lot of money into Q1 corp in the late 70's and early 80's. I worked at Q1 in Southampton in 1980. The model we assembled and tested was slightly different and looked very similar to the one you showed in the brochure. It had the plasma screen and 2 x 5 1/2 inch Shugart floppy drives in the case to the right of the screen. It was very unreliable and the only one I remember installing successfully was at an Estate Agents in Lyndhurst in the New Forest! By 1981 Q1 were on the verge of bankruptcy despite the money that the UK Government were pumping in. The whole thing ended up looking really "Heath Robinson" and didnt make the slightest dent in the early Computer market. I saw the writing on the wall and left to join....Datapoint.
Thanks for sharing this important bit of history!
You're right, that is a beautiful computer! I love the design! I've never heard of it. It would be fantastic if you can make a modern replica of it!
Cheers!
@@thebyteattic
Am I a total freaking lunatic for wanting every old machine replicated in FPGA so we can play with them?
@@waynesworldofsci-techIf you are going to use an FPGA which not just use an emulator?
@@ArthurBugorski
FPGAs have advantages, you can use a relatively inexpensive one like the C64 mini does and create a device.
That’s a huge advantage for makers.
A bit of an anticlimax that this is not the actual 8008 model from 1972, but a Z80 model from 1978. Note that the picture shown of the 8008 model shows a machine that is much deeper than what you have and that has a printer mechanism.
With "a printer mechanism" you mean it looks like a typewriter/teletype.
@@s.b.8704 Yes, indeed the picture shows something that looks like a typewriter/teleprinter.
No. That it’s a later variant makes it more important. It shows the evolution of the design.
@@waynesworldofsci-techwhat? It’s a different machine completely
What you have is a later Q1, even if it has an 8008, because the original one didn't have a screen, it had a daisywheel printer making it look like a typewriter.
I love the reverence and enthusiasm you have
Thanks 🙂These machines shaped my child self, to some extent
So from the Philon site some more, turns out Daniel Alroy was the one who convinced Datapoint's VP of R&D that dumb terminals will be a thing of the past and that microprocessors are the future while evaluating their company for IPO. Setting in motion the creation of the Intel 8008. Then while reporting his evaluation back to his superiors, they said well if you think you can make a better microcomputer then do it. We're an investment firm, we can get you the seed capitol like that. Just draft up the business plan.
Also wait, you're mentioning that later on Q1 used the Z80. But everything I'm reading mentions them building at least 2 8008 systems, then a German computer company buying the technical knowledge of the 8008 model, which funded the new 8080 model. Which was the model NASA had 11 of. Did the Z80 models come in the 80s after Daniel Alroy left to resume pursuing Neuroscience? (by the end of the video, I presume this is the case)
Nice Mars Attack reference 😆
"Very Strange Power Connector" This style connector has it's purpose and is standardised. Intended to provide high current power and low current signals. The most common place I can think of it today is in scientific labs for their industry computer peripherals. I've seen it deployed where all the signal pins were unused and the power pins powered up an microscope off the system PSU. How Q1 implemented it and what their intentions were, who knows.
Oh, a label. Q1-Lite. That's supposed to be the 8080 model. [but then you later reveal a Z80] Also the PSU specs... Hmm... We do have 208Y and 240Δ in the US, but not in 49.5-50.5hz. More like 58-62hz.
I'm getting this hunch that this model was made in or after 1979 once Daniel Alroy used the National Enterprise Board of the British Government's investment of $11 million in a joint venture with Q1, under which they manufactured Q1 equipment in the UK for marketing in Europe, as a way for him to step down.
There is chance the Computer History Museum of Mountain View, California may have one of NASA's old units in storage. The CHS is less than a mile from NASA Ames Research Centre. If they do it's not catalogued yet, I checked.
Thing is very pretty, I love the style of the old boxes.
Talk about a Forgotten Machine! Wow...VERY nicely done overview. I can't wait to hear more about it! And see your reverse-engineering, schematics, deeper looks inside, etc. Please, keep it coming!
Congratulations on receiving such a unique computer system! I look forward to the results of your restoration project. I'm hoping your video draws someone out there with an 8008 based model into sharing information about their system online as well--if there are any still out there. Hopefully there are!
If you get this case reproduced, I might want to purchase one as well. It looks like it might be exactly the same form factor as a terminal I'm restoring, only better-looking and not missing part of it.
Gotta give it the respect it deserves.
What an awesome find! Thank you for sharing this, and thank you for making sure it isn't forgotten. On a side note, I would love to have a replica of that beautiful case.
Happy that the computer will eventually end up in a museum. Best wishes with the project!
In the early 80s I lived in San Antonio and a good friend of mine in high school had an internship at Data Point. He took me in to show me around. He described how the user would login to a terminal and the "system" would connect the user to their files on the network, I think like 4 or 5 megabits, and then allocate a processor (z80) unit that was close to the terminal. You could migrate a running process from a slow cpu to a fast cpu with a command. Too bad Data Point never made it out of the 80s and was torn apart. They had some great ideas and tech.
Now that is a freaking beauty!
The disappointment in his voice at 14:07 when he realizes it is not the 1972 first microcomputer he thought it was, and just another z-80 based computer from the late 70s, is palpable. ☹
Nifty ! A real historical gem
Love the idea of using the same size for the clone, and it might be sensible to use something like a raspi for the display assembly, so a shader can be used to replicate the glow of the plasma display.
[Hopefully this works this time. My comments seem to get eaten, maybe because I was including a domain name that is now being camped on.]
The philon domain (which I won't spell out this time) is archived on Wayback machine.I pulled up a capture from Sept. 13, 2007, clicked on "Information Technology", then "The Microprocessor". Then keep hitting "Next". It's a series of pages telling how Daniel Alroy founded Q1, and a few details. There's a page that purports to show a "Q1 Lite", but it looks very different, with 5-1/4 floppies on the right side in a bay that extends out at a flatter angle than the display. The text says it had an 8080 processor, and "was installed in all eleven NASA bases."
[Edit with more tidbits:]
Google has some hits for "Daniel Alroy". A mail-archive link has a 2021 thread from cctalk list on classiccmp. It discusses a disk format used by Q1 Lite, and includes a link to an autobiographical paper by Richard Smets, who designed the OS and disk controller. More details about Q1 corp history; Daniel Alroy was apparently quite a character.
The mail thread says the disk format was very weird. Some 40-byte sectors, some 80-character, others 256-bytes.
[Edit with more more]
Google "Q1 lite". Looks like technikum got a bite on Q1 manuals on alt-folklore-computers.
Also a NASA software package that ran on Q1 Lite. Appears the computer has internal disks.
Maybe this why Sinclair used QL for their 68K machine, memories of or homage to the Q1.
@@joefish6091 "QL" stood for "Quantum Leap"
I only see "IT" on the left column menu, then, if I click on it, I get to one page, no more subpages, no "The Microprocessor"... Can you share the exact link?
@@thebyteattic I'm not having much success outwitting the delete-anything-that-looks-like-a-link robocop. Pull up the IT page again, and modify its link. The date portion of Wayback's url is 20070903062350. After philon's domain, replace the page base name "infotech" with "advent2".
Interesting, I started at the Philon Network on the oldest available date. Found the initial Apache install (or really Apache reporting / is empty), scrubbed forward to site under construction, scrubbed forward to under construction with a document covering something from a neuroscience con in Phoenix 2002, scrubbed forward some more until I got the first about Philon page, Learn Daniel Alroy started off as a neuroscientist, wrote a paper on animal sensations being innate sometime in the 1970s but was unable to get it published until 1995, "Recognizing that the passage of time [was] necessary for the acceptance that sensations are innate, Alroy accepted an offer to head a new computer company. In that position he had overall responsibility for the development of the world's first microcomputer system. It was based on the Intel 8008, the first 8-bit single chip processor. The system was delivered to Litcom, a Division of Litton Industries, in December 1972. In 1973, Nixdorf Computer of Paderborn Germany, provided funds for the development of the second generation computer system, which utilized the Intel 8080 microprocessor. That system was installed in the eleven bases of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA). In 1979 Alroy obtained a $11.5 million investment from British Government's National Enterprise Board, then stepped-down from running the enterprise, and returned to the field of his primary interest.", which brings us back to 2002 he's working on Philon a new neuroscience paten development and filing company.
Definitely an interesting character. Edit: I'm also realising now there are some minor contradictions with his backstory once you start reading the advent htmls. I'm going to guess the microcomputer backstory side is more truthful, and the about page up-plays his early neuroscientist status to help promote his new company. For example while he was still in college for a Philosophy doctorate, he was a High Technology Consultant for a Wall Street firm. Sounds like his animal sensations are innate paper was something he probably wasn't educated enough for yet nor was he really studying the correct subject for. More just something he was interested in. Then after making a boat load of money off of a 10 year career rooting from a Technology Consultant position, spend the next 15 years refining your paper until you can finally get it published. But it sounds better to new investors of your new neuroscience paten development and filing company if you've always been a neuroscientist, the world just wasn't ready yet for your paper, took a break with a "random" job offer, then returned to neuroscience. Also his lifetime method of making money raises some ethical questions that will probably forever go unanswered, and can only be contemplated.
I doubt I'll have any better luck getting past Alex Murphy, but I might as well try. web[punkt]archive[punkt]org[schrägstrich]web[schrägstrich]20030210000700[schrägstrich]http[doppelpunkt][schrägstrich][schrägstrich]philon[punkt]net[schrägstrich]advent[punkt]html
HA! Alex Murphy doesn't know German. Also damn, I should have used svenska. That's would have been practical practice.
Cambridge University, used among other machines
Computer Automation "naked mini" LSI-2 and later 4/30 machines
These were used in the development of BCPL and TRIPOS & ( Cambridge Ring )
TRIPOS was ported to the 68000 and became AMIGA OS.
I remember seeing a BCPL manual on the shelf of a small S/H computer store in Southbourne Bournemouth 80s, maroon colour if I remember correctly.
@@joefish6091 The Sinclair Research QL computer which used the 8 bit external data path version of the 68000 ( 68008 ) ,, had BCPL compiler from Metacomco.
( wiki BCPL) Several operating systems were written partially or wholly in BCPL (for example, TRIPOS and the earliest versions of AmigaDOS). BCPL was also the initial language used in the seminal Xerox PARC Alto project, the first modern personal computer; among other projects,
That’s fantastic! So glad to see it ended up with you…
Cheers!
Good to see an intact example of a historic machine. the OS ROMs running on an emulator would be interesting.
Indeed! I may do that
@@thebyteattic Hopefully those EPROMs haven't degraded... Back in the late 70s it was discovered that proms can "regrow" the blown links determining the bit's value.
I hope that they are still good... It would be very interesting to get the binaries onto a CP/m or DOS based emulator to generate at least a mnemonic-based source listing to play with on my $70 kit single board computer. (actually a Zilog 80180, a Z80 with 1MB address)
@@davidbonner4556 : you might be interested in having a look at Adrian Digital Basement last video here : th-cam.com/video/NHz1e1Wu1iI/w-d-xo.html
A very cool computer, but the first Microcomputer would be the Intel sim8 SBC (Apr 1972) which was the first board with an 8008.
Also by definition a Microcomputer must be based on usually a single Micro chip, and not TTL.
TTL machines are described as Computers or Mini-Computers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_System_Development_Kit#SIM8-01
But I am very jealous all the same:))))
Really remarkable!
Really unknown computer!!! Awesome!!!!
The ZX81 was a great way to teach patience, perseverance and disappointment to a small child... 🙂
I wasn't disappointed at all (although I was 17-18). Loved all the ways you could tinker with it, and interface it to home built electronics.
@@herrbonk3635 The ram pack could test a young boys patience... 😆
@@paulmurgatroyd6372 Yes indeed. That attempted "solution" was *too* low quality, a sloppy edge contact without mechanical support.
But it was easy to build a memory expansion directly on the main board using a few standard static SRAM ICs (say HM6116) selected by an LS138 or 139 decoder.
So the ZX80/81 was perfect for the electronics oriented kid (or adult learner, for that matter). I even had a Swedish course book called (in translation) "I/O-techniques on the ZX81" that teached me machine code programming as well. It was all very pedagogical for a 17/18-year old like me.
I don't see an issue with finding a modern alternative to parts, so long as your retrofit is reversible and you safely store the original broken parts in a place they won't get lost
During some of the lockdowns I’ve done some of my own reverse engineering and restoring on a relatively rare machine I have, the SLT 286 portable. Managed to figure out the floppy connector so I can use 34 pin floppy drives if the originals die (internal 26 pin header and the D37 on the back) and thanks to buying a few more on eBay (RIP my bank account) scored the modem card and 2 additional MB RAM plus some other spare parts mostly figured out the serial interface used by the modem card (and made my own serial port card that mostly works, interrupt circuit doesn’t work in the compaq diag but sends and receives serial ok) and have designs for a modern RAM card using SRAM so I can perhaps give it a few more MB possibly.
Please talk with Look Mum No Computer. This is a youtuber with fantastic skills.
great vid. I think you have the Q1 Lite. Original Q1 featured a built-in printer and was a bit larger
That keyboard is awesome.
I usually follow you for your insights into consciousness, but I enjoyed seeing your enthusiasm with this device :)
The design aged pretty well it would seem.
The most expensive part of a reproduction of the Q1 would be the custom keyboard. It seems to be unique to that machine. The really interesting bits would be the contents of the ROMS. You could build an emulator to use the ROM images without needing to recreate the hardware. That would let you experience the Q1's software which is more unique than the hardware.
That keyboard looks like an IBM 3270 terminal keyboard, with the function keys strung along the top instead of the side. With the low volume Q1 made, it's highly likely that they bought that keyboard from someone building keyboards for use in 3270 plug compatible terminals. Finding exactly the right keyboard at this point is folly, though. If I was to guess, I'd imagine the keyboard is probably a row and column parallel design, not "intelligent" (i.e., no microprocessor), and probably not serial. As such, just knowing how the matrix is laid out would allow you to construct some bridge hardware to translate between what it expects and a standard PC keyboard.
The SIO port looks like the connector Qume daisy wheel printers used, and the picture from the brochure looks like an early Qume. Their first machines were unusual in that they didn't use a straight ASCII character set. They had something that relied upon different control character sequences to advance the paper and move the carriage around.
The power connector looks like a V.35 connector. It shouldn't be difficult to figure out the pin out, since the power requirements are shown on the back. They'd be the two wires going into the input of the power supply.
I can't imagine this machine being anything more than a terminal with an attached printer without some kind of mass storage.
Imagine if someone put a 21:9 display into that retro machine ☝
Another interested future purchaser of a clone!
I'd be interested in modelling the case for the "remake" to be 3d printed. Sounds like a fun project.
Are you located in Europe? I'll keep your offer in mind, thank you!
@@thebyteattic Yes, in Switzerland 😀
I would love that case alone as a product, for putting modern components in. It’s so pleasing
It's possible that owners of the original 8008 machine were offered a largely discounted upgrade to a Z80 machine and they just tossed the originals. So they may have already been all gone already long ago.
One thing them modern day retro computer kits lack is a case like this one has, very nice, thanks for sharing
The Mars Attacks reference has made me a subscriber!
:-)))
What a find! Very cool machine! Good luck with the project
Thank you! I love your stuff too, particularly your repair of the rare IBM prototype someone else butchered ;-)
@@thebyteattic Thanks! I just ordered parts to continue with the 7496. Looking forward to updates on the Q1 : )
Gotta love how the TAB and ENTER keys are the same mold. Note how ENTER doesn't slope like the other keys :)
You will have to write a version of Space Invaders for it.
It also has 48k of RAM, which in 1972 must have seemed unimaginable.
Loving your videos, cheers from Australia.
An interesting design -- but I respectfully take issue with your definition of 'microcomputer'. A 'microcomputer' was essentially a smaller minicomputer -- a mini minicomputer, if you will -- as it became reasonably possible (and reasonably cost-effective) to take something like a 'dumb' serial terminal such as the classic VT100 or the likely more common Wyse 50 or similar other such equipment, and simply pack something like a miniature minicomputer inside. I recall reading about how the Data General MicroNOVA was created in Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" -- the guy said to his managers, hey, I can fit a NOVA on one single board! The managers all said he was nuts, he went home and literally built it on his kitchen table. It's... not a great leap to imagine the utility of shoving a MicroNOVA board, as such, into a Dasher terminal for what we'd now call an all-in-one system ;)
The earliest of these sorts of machines would have been intended strictly for business use, as the point of a computer in that era was more that of combining, essentially, what you did with a typewriter and what you did with a calculator into one machine. In an era when what we'd now call a game console was either a home Pong game or a Magnavox Odyssey, the idea of something like a ZX-80 or C64 that was a home games machine, or really even something like 1977's Atari 2600 -- ironically itself designed as a more flexible "ball and paddle" (Pong) games machine that, instead, became oh so much more -- was... science fiction at best, at that time.
There's actually some precedent for this as well -- also on the OLD-COMPUTERS [dot] COM website (which is currently malfunctioning badly, I think there's a dispute with ownership? Don't remember... although I tried talking with them about it once, all I recall is there's not much to be done) is an entry for the "PMC MicroMate" -- a box you set beside a serial terminal that turns it into a proper CP/M box. I'd love to play around with something like that IRL, but it doesn't seem to have sold well... oddly. Not sure why. The famous Apple I has a similar architecture as well -- the way it works, it's essentially a 'mini minicomputer' (albeit with a microprocessor CPU) with a terminal integrated onboard.
But there's really no logical reason to exclude systems like the Kenbak-1 or the Mark 8 Minicomputer or similar such machinery. Worth noting as well, a company called Four-Phase Systems was selling their IV/70 systems a year prior to the Q1's apparent release date as given here, per Wikipedia, with a multi-chip microprocessor. Further, Intel's 4004 was used in more than just calculators; Wikipedia notes its use in a prototype Bally pinball machine but isn't clear as to whether or not the design made it to production. IIRC there's a few entries on OLD-COMPUTERS [dot] COM further mentioning systems based on the 4004 and its slightly-improved successor, the 4040, although this is an older memory that isn't necessarily reliable. Moreover, the TI TMS1000 microcontroller came out at the same time as the 4004 and was used in, amongst other things, the famous Speak-n-Spell toy and Parker Brothers' Merlin electronic game.
But if we're going to restrict to your definition of a 'microcomputer' specifically being a computer of relatively compact size that has a microprocessor CPU inside, the Q1 is still beat by four years. By that definition, the first such 'microcomputer' was designed, developed, and released in 1968 by what is now Honeywell Aerospace but at the time was called Garrett AiResearch, under contract for the United States Navy. It is the Central Air Data Computer found in the Grumman F-14 Tomcat jet fighter.
But I think it's more fun to include underdogs like the Kenbak ;) attempts were made. There's no real reason to exclude them here.
How did they manage to make it so much smaller than Altair 8800 three years before it?
You restored a Commodore PET,,, I was was working in a company using many
Computer Automation "naked mini" LSI-2,, The PET was released and it used the IEEE488
bus to talk with its floppy drives, the "naked mini" LSI-2 used IEEE488 to control instruments
"we" tried a PET ,,, BUT,,, it was just toooo slow,, and no developer support to speak of,, Again I ask, why a Q1?
A modern version would be awesome to see. I hope you choose to do it 😎
Right now I do intend to do it!
Documentation yes, physical clone of a 70s desktop is probably not worth the bother unless there is an archive of unique sodtware..
An Amstrad PCW can run any CP/M software from this era, ditto any emulator.
turn on? how looks like the CRT? is widew screen?
Sort of off topic, I was in an electronics store in Leamington Spa UK in 1982, there was some surplus computer logic cards, they had these double sized DIP logic ICs, .2 pitch not .1 or .15. never even came across any reference to them.
How are you getting along with the reverse engineering? I found the posting of the original schematic, has this been brought into a modern CAD system yet?
I have a schematic for the mainboard. There will be a restoration video coming out in a few weeks! And there will be a surprise after that... not sure when, but within this year.
Thx. I'm really looking forward to the video!@@thebyteattic
A very interesting machine and certainly worthy of preserving. Whether it is an example of the first "microcomputer" depends on your definition of the word microcomputer. You are defining it to mean a machine based on a microprocessor but the original meaning was a machine smaller than a minicomputer regardless of how it was implemented. Good luck with the reverse engineering 👍
When I first learned about the Datapoint 2200 and CTC I was amazed as well. They were doing distributed processing, disk sharing, voice calls, etc. At a time when Multiplan was the hot new software??
They *had* to do disk sharing, because disks were expensive, and "distributed processing" for similar reasons. Same with old "mainframes" and "minicomputers". They *had* to share resources between many users... It was not a feature, but pure necessity. Today, we all have our own (super) computer.
Cool video. I really like old tech. Was the display on this unit capable of any kind of video game quality graphics and was the computer advanced enough to write games for it?
It's all just text... so only ASCII games could run here.
We linked to this on Hackaday, and have some interesting comments there from people that recognize the machine.
Dear Jonathan: thank you! Apologies for the late reply, this fell through the cracks. Very nice write-up! I was positively surprised you've considered it news worthy. Here is something else I, personally, consider even more news worthy: th-cam.com/video/R2dYZmlu1D4/w-d-xo.html. It's the first BASIC-programmed, standalone, instant-on microcontroller board. No more host PCs or sketch compilation ;-).
very cool!
Cheers!
A replica Q1 sounds like a great fun retro computing product.
What's the text mode resolution? 40x12? 32x12? Something else? I presume it's text-only with non-redefinable characters? Does it use the Signetics 2513 or some other character generator? Thanks in advance.
EDIT: Upon closer inspection (of the footage), it looks like that panel is 40x12 characters, with a 7x8 pixel character matrix, which is compatible with the famous Signetics 2513. More information (confirmation or contratiction) would be very welcome though.
Very neat display. I'd say a working example is m ore important than a totally original example as long as changes are documented and maybe the old parts just kept around in a baggy or something. Although a reverse engineered replica might be just as good. Perhaps even a MAME driver.
13:50 Doesn't look like 1972 technology in there
Two of these were found recently in a house in London by house clearance firm Just Clear. I just read about it on Tom's Hardware.
Yes, they misused my research to try to pass those units for 50K pounds each. I hate it when my work is misused this way.
@@thebyteattic Thanks for replying. I was thinking you might not see my comment and I was just looking at what other ways I might be able to let you know. Then you're reply popped up.
@@MrJakeTucker I read every comment here. Only in my 'real life' channel it's the staff who manages my social media presence. But for The Byte Attic, it's all me! And regarding the Q1s, I am the "expert" who was contacted after the find, as reported on the Daily Mirror, so I knew about it quickly.
@@thebyteattic Do you know if these 2 Q1s found in London belonged to the same person that would have originally purchased them back in the early 1970s? That's what I was interested in. How they were used. Maybe it's not in the Tom's Hardware or Mirror pieces due to privacy concerns.
I found what Paul Neve (co-creator of the exhibition) said was ridiculous. He said "There would be no PCs, no Macs, no Apple or Android phones without the Q1 Corporation". No. Q1 Corp just happened to be the first. If it wasn't Q1 Corp it would of some other company that would of been first and we would still have PCs, Macs etc.
@@MrJakeTuckerI suppose they belonged to the same person, as they were found together, I think. But I don't know it for a fact. And yes, you are right: Q1 just happened to be the first, but they didn't make any unique discoveries or set any standard. All that talk is hype to increase the auction prices. Because of that, and my unwitting 'cooperation' by highlighting the Q1 as a pioneer, museums will never be able to buy those units.
What a cool machine! I wonder what that edge connector is for...
TI still makes the 75150 but I don't think they make the 75152. And I see several of them in there.
I believe the display is a Burroughs Self-Scan display.
That's helpful, cheers!
This machine was obviously built for the European market by virtue of the serial number sticker which states the voltage as 207 - 250 VAC and 50.5 HZ. North American models would be 110 - 120 VAC and 60 HZ.
Back then the continent was on 220V, Britain on 240V. Not sure about the exact tolerances, might help to locate where this Q1 was placed.
Beautiful machine other then the scratches. Those should come out with some polywatch! ;)
The big thing on the screen actually isn't a scratch, but a bubbling-up of the protective film, which is still in place ;-)
17:16 Isn't that a vacuum fluorescent display?
First make sure that the power supply does not give off too high a voltage. And that the capacitors are not empty or tantalum short-circuited.
It's a plasma display!
exciting!! (i'm glad it's not terrifying 😅)
Me too :)
Are sure it is plasma? Could it be florescent?
Sinclair Radionics Ltd in the UK making calculators,, ( later the ZX series of Z80 computers )
had a Computer Automation "naked mini" Alpha-16, & ASR-33 TTY
with core memory, you could load BASIC, from the TTY, and it would remain in memory when turned off
its BASIC had floating point and Matrix operations, quite a useful thing,,,,, why get an 8008, Q1 ???
Numpad by default? Cinematic wide screen display?
What a special machine. I think it is safe to say, that Apple's claim to be the first with an all in one product, are kind of debunked here.
Yes keep it the same size.
❤
👍
FPGA core?
12:36 I know well these power connectors. But will my comment be blocked if I share the URL to the webpage where I document all there is to know about them? Perhaps I'll try as a reply to this comment, and see... Yep, I replied with the URL, and it's blocked...oh well...
Here's my page dedicated to these connectors...for another Forgotten Machine: entrex480.blogspot.com/2019/01/entrex-datascope-keystation-continental.html
Google: Winchester MRE14S and MRS14P Entrex and the top result will be the page that I tried to link and was blocked. Hope that helps a bit!
@@ForgottenMachines Thank you! Apologies for the late reply. I will do a search!
Before watching: of COURSE it's a "Q"-1! :)
What about using the circuit diagram for the MEMOTECH MTX512 and go from there as it also is powered by a similar processor i.e the ZILOG Z80A.
thats a much later machine, doubt much will be same/similar,
There are a great many Z80 machines :)
I posted a comment about some guys in Germany that try to fix another Q1, but TH-cam ate my comment (i made a error in my comment, edited it and then TH-cam couldn't save my edited comment ("Returning Error"), so in the end i had to delete my comment and write it again....and after reloading the page my comment was gone...).
I think I got an email from them!
What is the value if i find one ?
There's no market-set value, as there is no sales precedent. We now know of only 3 surviving machines, worldwide. So it's literally priceless.
I get more of a terminali vibe from this mschine than desktop. maybe with local dIsk storage.
Have you checked out Byte , PCW, or Interface Age ?
I have read every issue of Byte up to 1987. I can guarantee there is no mention or ad of Q1 computers whatsoever.
@@samsulummasamsulumma6898 Interesting, must have been very exclusive mschine. Cromemco ended up being DoD only.
I don't what the big deal of a system needing to have a cpu rather than multiple chips. As long it sits on a desktop and is pretty independent of other machines that is the first PC.
There is the first PC (SOL-20), the first desktop computer (DataPoint 2200), and the first microcomputer (Q1). These are not the same, and each is a significant historic milestone of its own. Without a microprocessor, computers wouldn't be economically feasible as a mass market product, for instance. So the first microcomputer was crucial for what became the Internet, smart phones, etc., none of which would have been practical with myriad discrete chips as CPUs.
@@thebyteattic Humm good points, but this thing seems to beat the sol 20, by some years it must have been one if Intel's first customers? I don't know why it has been ignored upto now?
@@anticat900I wish I knew! Very few units were ever sold and Q1 Inc. was acquired by a German company in 1974, before microcomputers became a thing, so that may have contributed to it.
turn it on ! !
There's a whole process that needs to be followed before turning it on after so long. I will get to it ;-)
neet but can you play games on it?
So funny... my computers in order were ZX81, Spectrum, MSX, then PC ...
me similar, except enterprise 64 , cpc6128 inbetween msx and pc, and didnt get a 'pc' until late 1990s
Won't execute ZILOG Z80A code but would a ZILOG Z80A work in that machine.
it HAS a z80 'clone' in it, mostek mk3880 so obviously would run z80 code, the mostek clone was occasionally used in some other machines such as zx80, zx81, as well , possibly also zx spectrum ,, and likely others
Q: Does that mean this is a 4-bit computer?
No, 8-bits
Has anyone created a 1:1 scale 3D printable case?
Unfortunately not yet!
@@thebyteattic If someone could get me engineering drawings with measurements, I may be able to make one.
@@stilgarhammer I haven't got them, but if I do, or manage to reconstruct them, I'll let you know.
DIE ZAG IK OP MARKTPLAATS 😂😂
MSX I love to much
But can it run Doom?
Omg the anti static strap...🙄
doubt it'd make any difference if it has standard ttl in it 😉
The 8008 (which OP originally thought he had) is P-MOS, the Mostek 3880 and 2708s are N-MOS, both technologies being highly static sensitive. If he'd zapped an 8008 that would have been expensive to replace. He was correctly cautious to be wearing an antistatic strap.
shit a display AND keyboard. altair eat your heart out!
Power supply Caps dry joints
Please make a new clone!
It absolutely does not look real. It looks like one of the better made cyberdecks. I mean - plasma display???
Yes, I made it all up, it's a scam.
I know, it's hard to get the proper meaning across in a YT comment sometimes. I get that it is real. It's just that it _looks_ like a reimagined thing using today's tech. I didn't know plasma displays were a thing back then before hearing about this Q1 thing. I first encountered plasma displays in early 2000s flat panel TVs. @@thebyteattic
@asmartin1975 I misunderstood you, sorry.
А на ней можно кс