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Info for sym1


====== Synertek SYM-1/SY-VIM1 (1978) ======


===== Features =====

* CPU: Synertek 6502 1 MHz
* RAM: 1 KB expandable to 4 KB on board
* ROM: 4 KB
* Text Modes: 6 digit LED display
* Sound: Built-in loudspeaker
* I/O Ports: Tape recorder, Serial RS232, 51 I/O lines connector
* Keyboard: 29 "sensitive" keys
* OS: Supermon monitor
* Built In Language: Hexadecimal monitor - Assembler
* Peripherals: ASCII Keyboard, expansion slots card



===== History and Trivia =====

Very early computer.

Synertek was one of the suppliers of the 6502 processor, and the SYM-1 was intended as a chip evaluation board for hardware developers that were interested in programming and interfacing a 6502.

The SYM-1 was a single board computer. It had a hexadecimal display and a hex keypad for programs and data entry. It was originally called the VIM-1 until MOS Technology objected to the name.

It was actually quite a copy of the MOS KIM 1 offering same fonctionalities plus some enhanced features and connection capabilities, including a true serial RS232 interface instead of a 20mA current loop in the KIM. It also shared same I/O connectors with another 6502 development system, the Rockwell AIM-65

A ROM chip contained the hexadecimal monitor (written by Manny Lemas, the co-founder of Microcomputer Associates) as well as standard I/O routines. Several programming language and utility software were later released. Among them: RAE-1 (Resident Assembler and Editor), FORTH and various flavors of BASIC, of which a powerful single precision version that needed the use of a video terminal.

Like other evaluation boards of the times, the SYM-1 was delivered with a full set of documentations which covered all of the 6502 hardware and software capabilities.

It was reported to us that the Sym card also came in a 6809 version that supported Motorola compatibility.

//(info from old-computers.com)//



===== Links =====

* SYM-1 Resources -- http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm
* SYM-1 at old-computers.com -- http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=856




Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009