The Instructor 50 was a small system designed to teach the use and programmation of the Signetics 2650 CPU. But it was also a real micro-computer with a tape interface to save and load programs, and a S-100 compatible expansion bus.
It actually belonged to a second generation training computers: unlike its predecessors, it wasn't just a raw electronic board, but offered a real plastic case, S-100 bus, tape-interface, etc....
The built-in display was only a eight-digit, seven-segment LED display... When turned on it displays "HELLO". The keyboard was made of an hexadecimal keypad (16 keys) and function keypad (12 keys). Interaction is also made through 8 parallel I/O switches and their corresponding LEDs.
The only software built-in the system was the monitor (called User System Executive or USE), used to program the Instructor 50. Of course, programmation was made in hexadecimal through a simplistic assembler.
The 2 KB ROM was used to store the monitor. RAM was 640 bytes, but 128 bytes were used by the monitor, leaving 512 bytes for programmation. But having 14 address lines, the 2650 CPU was capable of addressing 32K bytes !
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.
NAME
Instructor 50
MANUFACTURER
Signetics
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1978
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Hexadecimal Monitor
KEYBOARD
1 hexadecimal keypad + 1 function keypad
CPU
Signetics 2650
SPEED
895 kHz
CO-PROCESSOR
Signetics 2656
RAM
128 bytes (used by the monitor) + 512 bytes (free for the user)
ROM
2 KB (monitor)
TEXT MODES
LED display - 1 line of 8 characters
GRAPHIC MODES
None
COLORS
None
SOUND
None
SIZE / WEIGHT
35 (W) x 25 (D) x 7.5 (H) cm / 1.1 kg
I/O PORTS
Tape interface, S100 compatible expansion bus
BUILT IN MEDIA
None
POWER SUPPLY
External power supply (5V or 8V depending on models)
