Laying claim to be the first fully-assembled microcomputer with a built-in keyboard and television output, the Sol-20 was launched back in 1976. “It had more in common with the Altair 8800s and IMSAI 8080s of the day, than it did with the Apple and Commodore computers that were soon to follow, despite looking more like the latter”, says Michael Gardi who, a full 45 years later, built his own version, powered by Raspberry Pi, since a version made using only vintage components would be prohibitively expensive.
Michael’s home is full of Raspberry Pi computers performing tasks from NAS to OctoPrint server and RetroPie games arcade, so it seemed obvious to use our favourite single board computer for his Sol-20 project. He chose a Raspberry Pi 4 because he needed “the…
