According to Todd Fischer at IMSAI, "the first disk controller configuration was the two-board IFM/FIB single density only controller that ran IMSAI's CP/M 1.3. Check my Digital Research page for the IMSAI and CP/M story. IMSAI was an early adopter of CP/M and floppy disk drives, starting in 1976. Meanwhile, in 1976 Bill Millard co-developed and controlled ComputerLand, an early chain of franchised computer stores which did business through the mid-1980's.
Imsai 8080 emulator windows 10 software#
A public auction of IMSAI assets occurred Oct 24th 1979 rights to software and intellectual property were sold prior by sealed bid. IMSAI (or IMS Associates Inc.) went bankrupt in late 1979. S-100 bus history is described in this document. A subsequent version of the S-100 bus was the IEEE-696 design which was in use in the late 1970's but not approved by the IEEE until 1983. But that bus cross-compatibility initiated an industry of S-100 compatible cards that led to the formation of over 100 computer companies large and small, producing (more or less) compatible cards and systems. The name "S-100" was created later, a term disliked by MITS management. Subsequent plug-in card manufacturers referred to their products as "MITS/Altair bus compatible".
IMSAI ads of the period referred to their bus and cards as "MITS compatible".
At the time MITS in their customer magazine called it a "copy". Most S-100 fans today say the IMSAI is better engineered than the Altair 8800. The price rose during 1976 at various points, to about $500. A fourth card for memory was added at some point. This package was sold for the amazing initial price in 1975 of $400. The first IMSAI 8080 contained three cards: a motherboard with an Altair-like 100-pin bus connector, a front panel card with switches and lights like mainframe and minicomputers of the day and a CPU card with a 2MHz 8-bit IntelĨ080. The first units were shipped sometime in December 1975. The IMSAI 8080 was designed by Joe Killian, and advertized in Popular Electronics late in 1975. IMSAI decided to replicate the Altair for use with this system, and subsequently to offer it as a stand-alone product. Meanwhile, MITS announced their Altair 8800 late in 1974. Thomas "Todd" Fischer, an early IMSAI employee who later acquired rights to some IMSAI products and its name, describes on his site that IMSAI was designing a multiple 8080 processor system called the "Hypercube" in 1975. Sometime during 1975-76 it became known as IMSAI. The company provided engineering and software services. IMSAI's history preceeded the Altair but it is remembered best for the IMSAI 8080 computer and related products.
Consequently over 100 manufacturers created S-100 products and so established a market requirement of compatibility which later became "clones" in the IBM-PC world. While not a copy of the Altair, it was designed and sold to be card and bus-compatible with the Altair 8800. Late in 1975 after the introduction of the MITS Altair 8800. Here's the FIRST "clone" computer: the IMSAI 8080, offered by IMS Associates Inc.
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Here is a list of the IMSAI and Altair bus lines.įor a list of all S-100 docs click there.Īnd here is how to order S-100 stuff and to email me. On this page we have IMSAI history history and many IMSAI documents available as part of our S-100 document services on this page.Ī few IMSAI front panel switches, click here. Here on the right is an inside view of an original IMSAI 8080, with various cards. As of 2005 "IMSAI" as a trademark is held by Todd Fischer, who is producing new S-100/IEEE-696 products and some old IMSAI products at. Do not confuse IMSAI products with those from "Industrial Micro Systems" or "IMS" or "IMS International". IMSAI-related products have appeared by the "IMSAI" or "IMS Associates Inc." name or as new products by "Fischer/Freitas" or as a mix of old products and new designs from Fulcrum or W.W. The first S-100 computer was the MITS Altair 8800 in January 1975. The IMSAI 8080 was the second "S-100" computer made, offered late in 1975 by "IMS Associates Inc.", known shortly afterward as "IMSAI". IMSAI-based S-100 computers and Documentation List IMSAI-based computers and docs list
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