RCA COSMAC 1802 Computers - Josh Bensadon

Sadly, I didn't get a good overview shot of the entire setup when it was properly running, the exhibit was mobbed all weekend long. Best overview I got was it during setup, before the crowds were allowed in. This was one of my favorite exhibits!

Josh Bensadon, is a fellow COSMAC ELF fan, and he happens to be friends with Lee Hart.  Together, they have been to a handful of events showing off the classic 1802 and modern implementations of it.  Seen here is Josh’s replica of the traditional build of the ELF as seen on Popular Electronics approximately 40 years ago.  He owned one back in the day, and to this day he still kicks himself over throwing it away.

I’ve been putting off posting about this...

At VCFE 9.1, I really wanted to get one of Lee Hart’s 1802 Membership Cards.  However, I couldn’t afford one at the time and had to wait.  This year at VCFEX, I was able to buy one.  In fact, I made Herb Johnson’s first sale of the weekend.

Seen here is the 1802 Membership Card Rev. G with the IDIOT Monitor ROM add-on to make interaction over serial port easy (but I still have to figure out how I’m using it incorrectly.  Thus far, I’ve been able to enter in a few simple programs using the front panel toggle switches, but I really wish I could see what address I was at.  It would be very nice to have an address line, but I’ll survive.

This kit is a direct descendant of the COSMAC "ELF", which was a homebrew computer design featured in the August 1976 issue of Popular Electronics.  This was a big deal because an Altair 8800 was an expensive prospect for most computer hobbyists at the time -- about $2000 for the bare-bones kit (adjusted for inflation) and far more if you wanted to do anything useful with it.  But an ELF, based on the inexpensive RCA 1802 processor cost only $300 (adjusted for inflation).