Home | About | Collections | Stories | Help! | News & Links | Friends | Lets Talk! | Events & Visiting | Search


SWTPc S/09 and 6800
Southwest Technical Products Corp: computers and history

The Southwest Technical Products 6800 was introduced in late 1975 based on the the SS-50 bus and the Motorola 6800 processor rather than the S-100 bus with Intel or Z-80 processor boards. We would like to thank Dick R Murphy for this complete, working, 6809 based SWTPc system (called the S/09). It has dual MiniFloppy disks, a CT-82 terminal, FLEX, and all documentation. Dick and his son hand soldered many of the cards in this system. We are especially pleased with the condition of the rare blue monitor. Thanks Dick! Also on this page see our earlier SWTPc 6800 system and SWTPc miscellaney at the Digibarn donated by Roy Murphy (not related). Please also see Michael Holley's excellent recounting of SWTPc history below.

Image Gallery of the SWTPc S/09

CIMG1705.JPG
CT-82 terminal
See Michael
Holley's page on the CT-82 here
CIMG1706.JPG
CIMG1706.JPG
CIMG1708.JPG
CIMG1708.JPG
CIMG1709.JPG
CIMG1709.JPG
CIMG1710.JPG
CIMG1710.JPG
CIMG1712.JPG
Purchased at the BYTE SHOP!
CIMG1713.JPG
CIMG1713.JPG
CIMG1714.JPG
Floppy and CPU
CIMG1715.JPG
CIMG1715.JPG
CIMG1716.JPG
CIMG1716.JPG
CIMG1717.JPG
CIMG1717.JPG
CIMG1719.JPG
CIMG1719.JPG
CIMG1720.JPG
CIMG1720.JPG
CIMG1722.JPG
CIMG1722.JPG
CIMG1723.JPG
CIMG1723.JPG
CIMG1724.JPG
CIMG1724.JPG
CIMG1726.JPG
CIMG1726.JPG
CIMG1731.JPG
CIMG1731.JPG
CIMG1733.JPG
CIMG1733.JPG
CIMG1734.JPG
CIMG1734.JPG
CIMG1737.JPG
CIMG1737.JPG
CIMG1756.JPG
CIMG1756.JPG
CIMG1743.JPG
CIMG1743.JPG
 

Documentation for the S/09

Thanks to Dick Murphy the documentation is amazingly complete. Dick notes that there is also a system called Common Pilot that allowed SWTPc systems to be networked and use a common printer. Dick built a multi-user version of this machine and programmed a simple general ledger for a client. For digital versions of a lot of this documentation, shots of the hardware components and super marketing materials see Michael Holley's massive SWTPc documentation Archive.

CIMG1738.JPG
CIMG1738.JPG
CIMG1739.JPG
CIMG1739.JPG
CIMG1740.JPG
CIMG1740.JPG
CIMG1744.JPG
CIMG1744.JPG
CIMG1745.JPG
CIMG1745.JPG
CIMG1747.JPG
CIMG1747.JPG
CIMG1741.JPG
CIMG1741.JPG
CIMG1749.JPG
CIMG1749.JPG
CIMG1752.JPG
CIMG1752.JPG
CIMG1750.JPG
CIMG1750.JPG
CIMG1751.JPG
CIMG1751.JPG
CIMG1753.JPG
CIMG1753.JPG
CIMG1754.JPG
CIMG1754.JPG
CIMG1757.JPG
CIMG1757.JPG
 

Second System: A SWTPc 6800 (CPU cabinet only)

Thanks Roy Murphy (another Murphy, not related to Dick!) for this contribution. A difference between the earlier 6800 and Dick Murphy's S/09 donation is a different processor (6800 vs. 6809), nameplate & button placement and the use of a perforated case, which presaged later systems using such cases for better cooling, such as the Apple Mac G5 towers of the early 2000s. One warning here... you would not want to spill your coffee on top of this baby!

Image02.jpg
Image02.jpg
Image03.jpg
Image03.jpg
Image04.jpg
Image04.jpg
Image09.jpg
Image09.jpg
Image10.jpg
Image10.jpg
Image11.jpg
Perforated case
Imagea5.jpg
Imagea5.jpg
Imagea6.jpg
Imagea6.jpg
Imagea7.jpg
Imagea7.jpg

Image08.jpg
Not related but a cool multibus card!

Know anything more about SWTPc systems? Contact us!

Other DigiBarn SWTPc miscellaney


Early ad from Byte (November 1975)

Ad for SWTPc "System B"

SWTPc Catalogue Cover

(thanks Michael Holley)

The above ads for the original 6800 (thanks Michael Holley) and for a "System B" (not in the Digibarn collection) are certainly an interesting commentary on the evolution of the SWTPc hardware.


SWTPc crew posing with an "Altairs Suck" T-Shirt (1976)

The above photo gives you a sense of the early rivalry of microcomputer makers who entered the marked battling the big kahuna of the day... MITS, maker of the Altair. This photo was taken at the Personal Computing Convention, August 1976 in Atlantic City, New Jersey with Gary Kay holding the shirt (see Michael Holley's comments below).

Comments from virtual visitors to the DigiBarn

From Michael Holley, an expert on SWTPc, both the company and its technologies:

The SWTPC 6800 started shipping in November 1975. The prototype was done before August 1975. Wayne Green of BYTE magazine described SWTP in his October 1975 article "Are they Real?" and in his 73 Magazine February 1976 version. The 6800 was produced (with revisions) until 1979 when it was replaced by your 6809 system. Common Pilot was a Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) language developed in the early 1970s.

Larry Kheriaty and George Gerhold of Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. developed a version for the SWTPC 6800 in 1978. When I bought a copy from SWTPC one of the authors contacted me to find out how I was going to use it. I told them I got it because I want to check out the language.

This version used the Multi User Board which had four pages of bank switched memory so it could support 4 users. It also used the MP-N calculator board to do the math. Your MP-N board has the connector on the wrong side. (It should still work.) CIMG1743.JPG. The MP-N board is somewhat rare.

Pilot Version 1.2 added support for the CT82 terminal. The later versions for the 6809 systems did not require the special boards. You could show your Pilot manual to Liza Loop.

The "Altairs Suck" photo was taken at the Personal Computing Convention, August 1976 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. That is Gary Kay holding the shirt. When I visited Gary in February he showed me a letter from Jim Stratigos (dated late 1976) offering this photo for use by SWTPC. Jim Stratigos also helped with Robert Uiterwyk's BASIC.


More SWTP sites around the net:


Michael Holley's SWTPc site
and Documentation Archive and page on the CT-82 terminal

Obsolete Computer Museum's excellent page with enthusiast comments on the SWTPC 6800

Old Computers page on the SWTPc 6800 and on the S/09

6800 Computer System page at UNC

Allard's SWTP page

Specs from Allard's page:

Processor: 6800 later followed by the 6809
Bus: SS-50, a 50 pins bus
Date: some after July 1975
Ram: up to 48k ram
Media: 300 baud tape recorder
Disk: 5.25 ", used SS SD hardsectored 85K data, 35 tracks, 34 users, 10 sec/track, 4 taken by DOS.
Language: basic OS in PROM
Operating Systems: MINIDOS
ROM: up to 8K, ROM or EPROM
RS-232 type serial interface
Screen and keyboard: Information is entered into the SWTPC 6800 by an external terminal, or any other input device that can be connected to an 8-bit ASCII

The Machine Room's page on the SWTPC6800

Know anything more about SWTPc systems? Contact us!

Related S-100 Resources at the DigiBarn:

altair.jpg
The Altair 8800


Altair 8800b Turnkey System at the DigiBarn!

MITS and other manufacturers' S-100
boards for the 8800 series


DigiBarn S-100 Restoration Project

Please send site comments to our Webmaster.
Please see our notices about the content of this site and its usage.
(cc) 1998- Digibarn Computer Museum, some rights reserved under this Creative Commons license.