by AltairClone » June 12th, 2018, 11:53 am
Unfortunately, nothing about the Altair Clone electronics could be used to build an S-100 system. However, with the recent release of a reproduction Altair motherboard and Altair CPU board, combined with the availability of M. Eberhards enhanced 88-2SIO board and my enhanced Altair floppy controller, we're almost to the point where a "new" Altair 8800 computer could be built.
I'm a long way into the design of a replacement Altair front panel board that can mount in the Altair Clone's cabinet (the original Altair front panel board doesn't fit well into the Clone cabinet). Also, rather than having to cut, strip, and hand-solder 100 wires, this front panel board will connect with a ribbon cable to an interface board in the S-100 bus much like is done in the Altair 8800b.
With these boards, plus the Altair Clone cabinet and a couple of switching power supplies, you have a new Altair 8800 computer. Of course, this is blasphemy to some hobbyists, but it may appeal to other hobbyists to have an Altair up and running with an S-100 bus and boards. Of course, vintage boards (CPU, RAM, serial I/O, disk controller, motherboard, etc.) could be used as well.
Mike