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6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun.
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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
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---
title: Processor Technology Corp SOL - 10 / 20
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1976'
cpus:
- Intel 8080A
params:
name: SOL - 10 / 20
company: /companies/processor-technology-corp
company_name: Processor Technology Corp
specs:
- label: NAME
value: SOL - 10 / 20
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Processor Technology Corp
- label: TYPE
value: Professional Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: End of 1976
- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
value: Unknown
- label: KEYBOARD
value: QWERTY full-stroke keyboard
- label: CPU
value: Intel 8080A
- label: RAM
value: 8k, 16k or 32k (up to 48 KB)
- label: VRAM
value: 1 KB
- label: ROM
value: 1 KB
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 64 x 16
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: None
- label: COLORS
value: Unknown
- label: SOUND
value: Unknown
- label: I/O PORTS
value: RS 232, cassette, S100 Bus
- label: OS
value: CONSOL OS
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: Unknown
- label: PRICE
value: Unknown
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- hardware
- emulators
- links
- docs
photos:
- title: SOL 10 MAINBOARD
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: SOL-20 MAINBOARD
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: FRONT
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: SOL-20 OPENED
subtitle: ''
text: |-
This is where the expansion boards are mounted. Here are three 16k RAM expansion boards and one disk-controller board.
Notice the big power-supply on the left.
image: null
- title: 'SOL-20 OPENED #2'
subtitle: ''
text: 'Different combination of expansion cards : There are a Processor Tech 64K memory board, a Northstar Dual Density disk controller board and a Software Technology sound card (wow).'
image: null
- title: SOL-20 REAR
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: SOL STAR
subtitle: ''
text: |-
'Sol Star' name probably came from the dual floppy drive unit and controller card made by NorthStar.
Each unit was equipped with a 179 KB Shugart SA-400 floppy drive.
image: null
- title: REAL COOL PICTURE
subtitle: ''
text: It is a memory dump done on a 1977 Sony TV Set !! ;-)
image: null
adverts:
- title: 1977 ADVERT
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: SOL PRICE LIST
subtitle: ''
text: |-
**Sol Systems price list (january 1977)**
(K) = Kit (A) = Assembled
**Sol Terminal Computers**\
SOL-PC Single board (K) **$475**\
SOL-10 (K) **$795**\
SOL-20 (K) **$995**
**Memory Modules**\
PROM Resident Assembly Language (A) **$425**\
Interpretive Simulator (PROM option) (A) **$95**\
Text Editing (PROM option) (A) **$95**\
Erasable PROM module (K) **$65** (A) **$89**\
4 Kb. low power static Ram (K) **$159** (A) **$195**\
8 Kb. low power static Ram (K) **$295** (A) **$375**\
16 Kb. Dynamic Ram (A) **$529**
**Interface Modules**\
Parallel / Serial I/O Module (K) **$149** (A) **$199**\
System cassette interface (K) **$87** (A) **$119**\
Video Display Module (K) **$199** (A) **$295**
**Mass Storage System**\
Helios II Disk system (K) **$1895** (A) **$2295**
**Software**\
(C) = Cassette (P) = Paper tape\
Basic 5 (P) **$19.95**\
8K Basic (C) **$29** (P) **$37**\
New 8080 Focal (C) **$14.50**\
Trek 80 Video game (C) **$9.50** (P) **$14.50**\
GamePack 1 (C) **$9.50** (P) **$14.50**\
MathPack Video calculator (C) **$14.50** (P) **$19.50**\
Assembler (C) **$14.50** (P) **$19.50**\
ALS 8 (C) **$35** (P) **$45**
image: null
hardware:
- title: HELIOS II DISK MEMORY SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
text: Dual 8'' floppy drive unit
image: null
- title: 'HELIOS #2'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: HOME-MADE DISK-DRIVES
subtitle: ''
text: These are two dual density floppy drives (Shugart SA400) in a home made wooden case.
image: null
emulators:
- title: SOLACE
url: http://www.sol20.org/solace.html
platform: Windows
text: Emulates a SOL-20
links:
- title: A Sol-20 Web Page
url: http://www.thebattles.net/sol20/sol.html
text: Full of info !!!
docs:
- title: SOL SYSTEMS MANUAL
url: http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html
cover: null
text: |-
[**SOL SYSTEMS MANUAL**](http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html)written by Processor Technology Corporation
 compiled/archived by Roger Lewis ?\
 type of document : PDF\
 size : 8,3 MB\
 source : [www.sol20.org](http://www.sol20.org)
- title: SOLOS/CUTER USER'S MANUAL
url: http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html
cover: null
text: |-
[**SOLOS/CUTER USER'S MANUAL**](http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html)written by Processor Technology Corporation
 compiled/archived by sol20.org\
 type of document : PDF\
 size : 99 KB\
 source : [www.sol20.org](http://www.sol20.org)
- title: BASIC/5 USER'S MANUAL
url: http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html
cover: null
text: |-
[**BASIC/5 USER'S MANUAL**](http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html)written by Processor Technology Corporation
 compiled/archived by sol20.org\
 type of document : Unknown\
 size : 91 KB\
 source : [www.sol20.org](http://www.sol20.org)
- title: 16KRA - USER'S MANUAL
url: http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html
cover: null
text: |-
[**16KRA - USER'S MANUAL**](http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html)written by Processor Technology Corporation
 compiled/archived by sol20.org\
 type of document : PDF\
 size : 1,2 MB\
 source : [www.sol20.org](http://www.sol20.org)
- title: 48KRA-1 - DYNAMIC READ/WRITE MEMORY MODULE USER'S MANUAL
url: http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html
cover: null
text: |-
[**48KRA-1 - DYNAMIC READ/WRITE MEMORY MODULE USER'S MANUAL**](http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html)written by Processor Technology Corporation
 compiled/archived by Steve Maguire\
 type of document : PDF\
 size : 1 MB\
 source : [www.sol20.org](http://www.sol20.org)
- title: MICRO-DISK SYSTEM MDS-A-D DOUBLE DENSITY - MANUAL
url: http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html
cover: null
text: |-
[**MICRO-DISK SYSTEM MDS-A-D DOUBLE DENSITY - MANUAL**](http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html)written by North Star Computers
 compiled/archived by Doug Coward\
 type of document : PDF\
 size : 235 KB\
 source : [www.sol20.org](http://www.sol20.org)
comments:
- author: Jason (Canada)
date: Sunday 19th September 2021
text: Built the Sol 20 kit back in the late ''70s and bought a used one in the ''80s. They are both long gone, but I would love to add one back into my S-100 collection.
- author: Lillian (United States)
date: Thursday 20th April 2017
text: In 1976, my husband began visiting the only computer store in the Washington area, in Georgetown after work. It took him a year to prepare me for the fact that he was going to spend a lot of money buying a computer. I thought he was having a mid-life crisis. He bought the Sol III and a printer the next year. I remember that the printer cost more than the computer. When I expressed my doubts about buying a computer, he said, "Someday everyone will have a computer in their home." He used the Sol to do genealogy and he invented a football game using text only that neighbors became addicted to. Neighborhood kids lined up to play it. When I asked if I could learn to use it, I was told that the only available time was from 3 to 4 a.m. He bought a second Sol to use for replacement of parts. One of them is in a computer museum somewhere in California, I think.
- author: Richard Freeberg (Napa CA)
date: Monday 30th March 2015
text: I bought a used SOL 20 at at the Sunnyvale Swap Computer swap meet about 1979 or so. I used it to learn 8080 assembler. I still have it in the back room and have somehow protected it from the wife''s semi-annual "purge" of all that "junk". At the same swap meet in 79 I had the chance to purchase the original Intel 4040 prototype board from an old Intel engineer who was cleaning out his garage, for $5, cash. But since I had blown my wallet on the SOL, I didn''t have any money left! LOL Next year, the same engineer had realized what he had, and mounted and ''framed'' the 4040 board. It was NOT for sale...
- author: Ron (Pennsylvania)
date: Sunday 7th April 2013
text: I still have a working Sol 20. I used it for my business along a 70K Micropolis hard drive. It''s been sitting in my basement for years.
- author: Rob Sklut (USA)
date: Thursday 19th July 2012
text: Electric Pencil was really the first ''successful ...'' word processor application (I remember it well $ it was used on many 8080-based systems of the era).
- author: bruce geiger (usa)
date: Monday 28th May 2012
text: |-
I puchased one of these computers along with a tractor printer and the package was around $5k\
My need was to maintain an inventory list and be able to $ an item between two other items.\
Simple today but a pain the rear then.\
I wrote programs for labels on Basic and dreamed of a restaurant system that would allow waiters to $ orders for the cooks from the dining room\
I bought a system, touch screen, and it sold for pluis 20k\
The venture failed and nobody got paid.\
I spent about 1000 hours learning basic and the clunky memory disks.\
I should have gone fishing, but it was fun.
I am 82 years old.
- author: Guillermo Belli (Nicaragua)
date: Wednesday 16th November 2011
text: My father had one of those. I have faint memories of it, as I was a little boy, but I cannot forget the beautiful wood cabinet and top-notch construction. I do not remember seen it in action. I know I played some games on a computer, but maybe that was on the TSR-80.
- author: Cherry Emerson (USA)
date: Monday 14th November 2011
text: We had one of these, the III, we were Emerson House, Inc., in Denver, CO This was a Private Prison/Halfway House. I remember hauling it, and that damn printer all the way to San Diego or San Francisco for a conference for International Halfway House Association where I gave a presentation on how computers could be used to store data, print reports and do accounting. I swear it came with some software called "electric pencil?" Anyone remember that. I think my deceased ex-husband''s widow may still have this one tucked away as he absolutely refused to throw it out!
- author: Michael Gauthier (California/USA)
date: Thursday 25th November 2010
text: YES! there were 64k SOL-20''s. I had one. I was using the acounting program that required 64k. I also used the word processing system. I had the HELIOS 8" dual floppy disks and a special NEC Spinwriter for printing. I used it in my business for many years. My brother also had a SOL-20, but his was the 48k version with the HELIOS 8" floppies. He used the wordprocessing system for his business. The only real problem we ever had with them is the memory chips would become loose in the sockets. Every so often we would need to take out the boards and press the chips back into their sockets. I loved the real walnut on the sides of the cases.
- author: Jack Kennedy (San Antonio)
date: Tuesday 18th November 2008
text: Yes, I had my SOL maxxed out at 48K, which allowed me to compile the SLAC Pascal compiler. It was the coolest thing I''d done to that point.
- author: Kay-Sugg (Earth)
date: Tuesday 16th April 2002
text: |-
Please reduce the RAM maximum you list for the Sol-20 from 64K to 48K.\
Yes, the address space supports 64K (8080 MPU) but any attempt to get there\
hits a reef - the memory mapped video interface at C000. The system I used\
in '78 - '79 had three 16K memory boards, a floppy controller, and a\
terminator half-board. It also had a cooling problem that forced me to\
leave part of the cover off so that it wouldn't overheat. The system was\
sensitive to power spikes - after I built my own line filter from plans in\
a user group newsletter my crashes dropped from one or two a day to one a\
week. The \~$1500 kit my employer purchased didn't have a 12" monitor - I\
used a 9" monitor for a while until I could afford to buy a 12" one to\
replace it. Our 8" floppy sub-system was a Megabox (?) from a firm in San\
Francisco. (That firm later stretched the chassis and tucked an S-100 buss\
into the added space. The resulting system used a Z80 MPU.)\
I am something of a kindred spirit - I own a Kim-1 (blue case), Atari 400\
& 800, Sinclair ZX-81, and an HP lab computer with a CP/M module. I also\
have the usual odds & ends that a computer junkie tends to accumulate.
oc_id: 344
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604041241/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=344
date: '2023-06-04'
---
The Sol Computer was developed by Bob Marsh, Lee Felsenstein and Gordon French. Bob founded his company, Processor Technology, in April 1975 making 4K RAM memory boards for the Altair (cause MITS couldn't make a working memory board)
In June 1975, Bob and Les Solomon (technical editor of Popular Electronics) dreamed up the Sol-20 computer, Bob had a bunch of cheap walnut that he originally intented to use in a digital clock, he didn't want it to go to waste and used it in the Sol-20 (see picture).
About 10,000 of them were produced, some as kits, some as pre-builts. Based on the Intel 8080 microprocessor, this machine occupies a special niche in computer history for technical and esthetic reasons. It was one of the earliest to include a keyboard interface and support circuitry for full implementation of every 8080 function. It was a pioneer towards modern video output boards by having a design that actually put up alphanumeric characters on the screen, using a form of distributed processing that didn't lean on the CPU for all processing.
There were several models of the SOL-20 system :
\- The SOL System I ($1649 in kit or $2129 assembled), with SOL Operating System, 8 KB RAM, a 12" TV/Monitor, and a cassette recorder with BASIC software tape.
\- The SOL System II ($1883 in kit or $2283 assembled), is a SOL System I with 16 KB.
\- The SOL System III ($4750 in kit or $5450 assembled), is a system II with 32 KB RAM, a video monitor, the HELIOS II Disk Memory System and a DISK BASIC floppy.