General Information
The System 00 ("Personal Computer Model 00") is Joseph Weisbecker's original hand-built COSMAC prototype, constructed at RCA Laboratories in Princeton around 1971. It is built from standard 7400-series TTL logic rather than from a microprocessor, and its architecture became the basis for the RCA CDP1801 two-chip set and later the CDP1802. For details about the instruction set, see the SYSTEM00 section.
FRED (Flexible Recreational and Educational Device) was Weisbecker's concept of a personal, educational, and amusement computer. The FRED I configuration emulates the same machine with its later, simplified front panel, while the System 00 configuration emulated here reproduces the original large operator control panel described in the 1971 System 00 manual.
The front panel controls are described in the Front Panel section, and the operating procedures in the Operating Procedures section.
Technical specifications
CPU: SYSTEM00
Clock: 1 MHz
Memory: 1 KB RAM
Video: 32×32, 64×16 or 64×32 pixels
Sound: from tapes or by toggling bit 2 in OUT 3
Keyboard: Hex keypad
History
| 1971 | Weisbecker designs the COSMAC architecture and builds the System 00 from TTL logic; the System 00 manual documents the machine and its operator control panel. |
| 1972 | The FRED system manual documents the machine and the CARDTRAN interpreter; a 6 KB memory board replaces the original 1 KB board in December. |
| 1973 | A tape interface card (E4) is added in March; the FRED Notes describe a light gun in May and the use of 45 RPM records as program input in July. |
| 1974 | RCA produces the CDP1801 prototype chips (TA6889 and TA6890), turning the System 00 architecture into a two-chip CMOS set. |
| 1976 | The single-chip CDP1802 becomes available. |
The original system is built from hand-wired cards: P1 and P2 hold the processor logic, P3 the I/O circuits, M1 the 1 KB memory board, and E1 to E3 the interfaces.
Other information
- The 1971 System 00 manual on cosmacelf.com: system-00-manual-orig.pdf
- Herb Johnson's System 00 inspection page
- Herb Johnson's page: RCA/Weisbecker "System 00" and "FRED"
- System 00 gallery on cosmacelf.com
- Original photos on the Hagley Digital Archives
Main emulator features
- Large operator front panel with full manual control of the CPU
- Adjustable clock speed beyond 1 MHz
- Tape loading and saving (WAV file and real cassette) including a Turbo version
- Automatic tape format and stop-tone detection
- Direct memory access to load and save software from the host computer hard disk via binary files
- SYSTEM00 video with zoom and full-screen mode (press
F3) - Video screen dump to a file (BMP, JPEG, PNG, or PCX image)