Mark-8

The Mark-8 is a microcomputer design from 1974, based on the Intel 8008 CPU (which was the world's first 8-bit microprocessor). The Mark-8 was designed by Jonathan Titus, a Virginia Tech graduate student in Chemistry. After building the machine, Titus decided to share its design with the community and reached out to Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics. He was turned down by Popular Electronics, but Radio-Electronics was interested and announced the Mark-8 as a 'loose kit' in the July 1974 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine.[1][2]

The July 1974 issue of Radio-Electronics: "Build The Mark-8: Your Personal Minicomputer".[1][2]

Project kit
Intel 8008 CPU

The Mark-8 was introduced as a 'build it yourself' project in Radio-Electronics's July 1974 cover article, offering a US$5 booklet containing circuit board layouts and DIY construction project descriptions, with Titus himself arranging for $50 circuit board sets to be made by a New Jersey company for delivery to hobbyists. Prospective Mark-8 builders had to gather the various electronics parts themselves from a number of different sources.[3] A couple of thousand booklets and some one-hundred circuit board sets were eventually sold.

The Mark-8 was introduced in R-E as "Your Personal Minicomputer". This may be readily understood considering that the microcomputer revolution had yet to happen; the word 'microcomputer' was still far from being common fare. Thus, in their announcement of their computer kit, the editors quite naturally placed the Mark-8 in the same category as the era's other 'minisize' computers. As quoted by an Intel official publication, "The Mark-8 is known as one of the first computers for the home" [4]

Influences

Although not very commercially successful, the Mark-8 prompted the editors of Popular Electronics magazine to consider publishing a similar but more easily accessible microcomputer project, and just six months later, in January 1975, they went through with their plans announcing the Altair 8800.[5] According to a 1998 Virginia Tech University article, Titus' Mark-8 microcomputer now resides in the Smithsonian Institution's "Information Age" display [6]

See also

References
  1. Titus, Jonathan (July 1974). "Build the Mark 8 Computer". Radio Electronics. 45 (7): 29–33.
  2. Radio-Electronics; July 1974 issue.
  3. Mark-8 Minicomputer, Bryan's Old Computers, retrieved Feb 11 2009
  4. Intel Microprocessor Timeline
  5. About Forrest M. Mims III, By writer, editor and publisher Harry L. Helms, retrieved Feb 24 2009
  6. Pioneers in microprocessor technology, Virginia Tech. Magazine, 1998
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