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Altair 8800, Serial #220014K

Wow! It sure looks great on the outside.

Here's hoping that you find a treasure trove inside when you get it.

Congratulations on your excellent acquisition!

smp
 
Someone donated an Altair? I didn't think we'd see that in 2015!
 
Based on the front panel and the sharp inside corners on the DB-25 cutouts, this is a very early unit. Keep us posted!

Mike
 
Wow! Based on all characteristics, it is a genuine 14th Altair 8800 for sure! Wonderful find, Congratulations!

Keep us posted! Thank you for sharing!

I have add the link for Altair 8800 rev.0 survivors list! http://www.vintage-computer.net/?p=144
 
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It has a 88-ACR board inside for sure, base on that I can do some guess, at least 3-4 boards inside.

An Altair CPU board

8K SRAM board installed or one-two 4K SRAM boards plus 1K board.

88-SIO A board installed.
 
She has arrived, and she is what I hoped. Clean. Zero rust. Hardly any dust whatsoever. She is GORGEOUS. She had 3 cards:

1). the CPU board (with an 8080 not an 8080A!!!)
2). the 88-SK4 (dynamic RAM) board, though from 1976
3). and the PIO (also called the 88-PIO) board

I will post 5 photos in each of the next 4 replies, should you care to look.
 
Hi All;

Simkiss, Just in case You do Not know the 4K or any Dynamic Memory Board were notorious for being "not able to Remember"..
I had a (I think) 16K in my Origional 8800b, and it would pass Mits Memory Diagnostic..
But couldn't Remember worth a Hoot..
I would try and Load up Basic from my Meca Intelligent Cassette Tape and it wouldn't work.. I would send it back to the Factory, and they would say it was fine..
I finally gave up.. I found out Years Later, that the Dynamic Boards didn't work, and it was not my Tape System..

THANK YOU Marty
 
That's a really great machine, the condition is very impressive for such an early model. What's the possibility of getting a parallel terminal? I know they were used back in the day but are they available these days? I was in the same boat with my Altair, it had an 88-PIO for terminal but I could never find a terminal that could use parallel comms.
 
Thanks, Marty. I am aware that the DRAMs were a huge problem from reading the excellent s100computers.com site.

However, I am a little puzzled as to what SRAM boards will work with the earliest model Altair, as the S-100 standard evolved a bit in the mid to late 70s.

I was looking at the Compupro RAM 17 64K board, which is IEEE 696 compatible, but I don't think my 8800 is IEEE 696 compatible...

Any thoughts as to which 64K DRAM boards might work?
 
tkc8800 said:
That's a really great machine, the condition is very impressive for such an early model. What's the possibility of getting a parallel terminal? I know they were used back in the day but are they available these days? I was in the same boat with my Altair, it had an 88-PIO for terminal but I could never find a terminal that could use parallel comms.
Click to expand...

Slim to none. Like you, I'll go with a MITS 88-2SIO or the Solid State Music IO4. :cool:
 
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