Mark-8

Mark-8

Mark-8 is a 1974 microcomputer design based on the Intel 8008 . Mark-8 was designed by graduate Jonathan Titus and was featured as a DIY kit in the July issue of Radio Electronics .

A brochure was offered for US $ 5 that documented the board layouts, instructions, and descriptions for the construction. Titus negotiated an offer with a New Jersey company that would allow readers to order the boards they needed for $ 50. A few thousand brochures and several hundred printed circuit boards were sold. Budding designers of the Mark-8 had to organize the various electronic components themselves.

Mark-8 was featured in RE as "Your Personal Minicomputer". The word “minicomputer” meant what was later and still commonly referred to as a microcomputer .

Although not very successful commercially, Mark-8 got the editors of Popular Electronics to publish a similar but more accessible microcomputer project, the Altair 8800 , in January of the following year .

Web links

• The Mark-8 Minicomputer - Website with Jonathan Titus' own description of the Mark-8. Link dead, archived page
• Mark-8 minicomputer - an original, fully restored Mark-8
• Collection of old analog and digital computers