Name/Title
1974- July- Radio-Electronics, "Build the Mark-8"Tags
Magazine, Radio-ElectronicsDescription
The July 1974 issue of Radio-Electronics featured an article titled “Build the Mark-8: Your Personal Minicomputer,” which introduced the Mark-8 microcomputer. Designed by Jonathan Titus, a graduate student at Virginia Tech, the Mark-8 was based on the Intel 8008 CPU, the world’s first 8-bit microprocessor. The article offered readers a chance to build their own minicomputer by purchasing a booklet for $5 (equivalent to $30 in 2023) that contained circuit board layouts and construction project descriptions. Titus arranged for circuit board sets to be made by a New Jersey company, which hobbyists could buy for $50 (equivalent to $300 in 2023).
The Mark-8 was not a commercial success, but it was significant for being one of the first computers intended for home use, as the term ‘microcomputer’ was not yet widely used. The project kit sold a couple of thousand booklets and around a hundred circuit board sets. Despite its limited commercial impact, the Mark-8 influenced the editors of Popular Electronics, leading them to publish a similar project six months later—the Altair 8800, which became a cornerstone of the personal computer revolution
