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.

Year1978
Make & ModelRockwell AIM 65
Generation4th
CPUMOS 6205
Speed1MHz
RAM & ROM1k or 4k RAM, 5x 4k ROM
Power240V to 5V and 24V
Exhibit No.1336

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *