Mark-8 Minicomputer
date: label: date made
content: 1974
notes: label: Description
content: The Mark-8 minicomputer, as it was called by its inventor, was one of the first microprocessor-based computers built. It was designed - and in this case assembled - by Jonathan A. Titus, a graduate student in chemistry at the Virginia Institute of Technology. Titus had first thought carefully about computers when he encountered a DEC PDP-8/L minicomputer at Virginia Tech in 1971. By the middle of 1974, using an INTEL 8008 central processing unit, he was able to design and build this smaller, cheaper machine for personal use. Titus did not attempt to distribute his machine, but did prepare instructions for assembling it that were available from the magazine Radio-Electronics. An article on the Mark-8 he wrote for that machine appeared in the July 1974 issue of it. For further information about his efforts to publicize the Mark-8 and other related documentation, see the objects in transaction 1990.3165.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jonathan A. Titus
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1990.0610.05
label: catalog number
content: 1990.0610.05
label: accession number
content: 1990.0610
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Minicomputer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 24.8 cm x 43 cm x 27.9 cm; 9 3/4 in x 16 15/16 in x 10 31/32 in