NAME  

SOL - 10 / 20

MANUFACTURER  

Processor Technology Corp

TYPE  

Professional Computer

ORIGIN  

U.S.A.

YEAR  

End of 1976

BUILT IN LANGUAGE 

Unknown

KEYBOARD  

QWERTY full-stroke keyboard

CPU  

Intel 8080A

RAM  

8k, 16k or 32k (up to 64 KB)

VRAM  

1 KB

ROM  

1 KB

TEXT MODES 

64 x 16

GRAPHIC MODES 

None

COLORS  

Unknown

SOUND  

Unknown

I/O PORTS 

RS 232, cassette, S100 Bus

OS  

CONSOL OS

POWER SUPPLY 

Unknown

PRICE  

From $1649 to $5450

 

SOL-20

SOL-20

 The Sol Computer was developed by Bob Marsh, Lee Felsenstein and Gordon French. Bob founded his company, Processor Technology, in April 1975 making 4K RAM memory boards for the Altair (because MITS couldn't make a working memory board).

In June 1975, Bob and Les Solomon (technical editor of Popular Electronics) dreamed up the Sol-20 computer, Bob had a bunch of cheap walnut that he originally intended


to use in a digital clock, he didn't want it to go to waste and used it in the Sol-20.

About 10,000 of them were produced, some as kits, some as pre-builds. Based on the Intel 8080 microprocessor, this machine occupies a special niche in computer history for technical and esthetic reasons. It was one of the earliest to include a keyboard interface and support circuitry for full implementation of every 8080 function. It was a pioneer towards modern video output boards by having a design that actually put up alphanumeric characters on the screen, using a form of distributed processing that didn't lean on the CPU for all processing.

There were several models of the SOL-20 system:
* The SOL System I ($1649 in kit or $2129 assembled), with SOL Operating System, 8 KB RAM, a 12" TV/Monitor, and a cassette recorder with BASIC software tape.
* The SOL System II ($1883 in kit or $2283 assembled), is a SOL System I with 16 KB.
* The SOL System III ($4750 in kit or $5450 assembled), is a system II with 32 KB RAM, a video monitor, the HELIOS II Disk Memory System and a DISK BASIC floppy.