The AMI 65 – Rockwell R6500 Advanced Interactive Microcomputer – was a single-board 8-bit comptuer, complete with 20-column printer, 20-character display, detachable keyboard, Serial port, Parallel port, 4-Wire 20mA TTY port and when it came in the Rockwell enclosure, a PSU.
- 54-Key keyboard with 70 different functions, for Alphanumeric, Numeric control and Special control functions
- 20-Character Alphanumeric Display, with 16-segment characters allowing for 64-character ASCII format.
- 20-Column 120 Lines/minute thermal printer, allowing 5×7 64-character ASCII text.
- Plug-in sockets for 4k RAM using the 4-bit 2114 RAM chips.
- Advanced Text Editor/Monitor, stored in two R2332 ROM chips.
- Plug-in sockets for 12k ROM or PROM chips, allowing applications such as FORTH, BASIC, Instant PASCAL and PL/65 languages. The Symbolic Assembler and Floating Point Maths packets are also an option.
- 44-Pin connector for interfacing with peripherals such as two Cassette recorders, 20mA TTY, Switches and Sensors. There is a Serial and Parallel TTL-level interface. Timing and control functions via a 16-bit built-in timer/counter.
- 44-Pin Bus Expander, allows expansion of Data, Address and Control lines.
The display consists of a 1-Line 20-character alphanumeric LED display. This must have been somewhat difficult to use. The system comes with 5x ROM sockets. 2 of these were used for the software monitor, the other 3 allowed different applications to be run.
The AIM 65 has three switches. Switch 1 on the left is used to initialise (Reset) the system. Switch 2 to the left of the display switches between Step and Run. Switch 3 selects Keyboard or TTY input.
The computer cost $375 in 1978 with the 1k RAM option for the basic board, without enclosure. This was considred very cost-effective. In 2020 this is equivelant to $1,500 (£1,140).
Prices listed in Compute II August 1980 Issue 3:
- 4k AIM-65 $515
- AIM Enclosure $43.50
- Power Supply by MTU $79.95
- AIM BASIC ROM $100 (Microsoft)
- AIM Assembler ROM $85
- Complete System $850 (4k AIM, BASIC, Assembler, MTU PSU, Sanyo tape recorder and Enclosure)
- Rockwell Motherboard for the AIM $195
It is unknown how much RAM is in this computer in the collection. The RAM sockets are undernath the PSU which I didn’t realise when taking the photos.
| Year | 1978 |
| Make & Model | Rockwell AIM 65 |
| Generation | 4th |
| CPU | MOS 6205 |
| Speed | 1MHz |
| RAM & ROM | 1k or 4k RAM, 5x 4k ROM |
| Power | 240V to 5V and 24V |
| Exhibit No. | 1336 |
