--- title: Synertek SYM1 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1978' cpus: - Synertek 6502 params: name: SYM1 image: /media/museum/photos/synertec_sim1_system_1.jpg company: /companies/synertek company_name: Synertek specs: - label: NAME value: SYM1 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Synertek - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1978' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Hexadecimal monitor - Assembler - label: KEYBOARD value: 29 'sensitive' keys - label: CPU value: Synertek 6502 - label: SPEED value: 1 MHz - label: RAM value: 1 KB expandable to 4 KB on board - label: ROM value: 4 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 6 digit LED display - label: SOUND value: Built-in loudspeaker - label: I/O PORTS value: Tape recorder, Serial RS232, 51 I/O lines connector - label: OS value: Supermon monitor - label: POWER SUPPLY value: External 5V - 1.5A power supply unit - label: PERIPHERALS value: ASCII Keyboard, expansion slots card - label: PRICE value: $239 tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - links - docs photos: - title: SYM-1 subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/synertec_sim1_system_2.jpg - title: FIRMWARE ROMS subtitle: '' text: Monitor, RAE and BASIC language into Signetics ROM modules image: /media/museum/photos/synertec_sim1_romsoft_1.jpg - title: KTM2 VIDEO INTERFACE & KEYBOARD subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Peter de Vroomen** image: /media/museum/photos/synertec_sim1_ktm2_s1.jpg - title: COMPLETE SYSTEM subtitle: '' text: |- Complete system with monitor, tape recorder, RAM expansion card, external PSU, Synertek BASIC interpreter and a whopping 8 KB of available RAM. Thanks to **Peter de Vroomen** image: /media/museum/photos/synertec_sim1_completesys_s1.jpg - title: SYNERTEK DOCUMENTATION subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/synertec_sim1_docset_1.jpg - title: THE BOX subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/synertec_sim1_box_1.jpg adverts: - title: FRENCH ADVERT (1979) subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/pubs/synertek_sym1_pub_1.jpg hardware: - title: KTM-2 KEYBOARD subtitle: '' text: This Synertek keyboard provided a video interface, a composite video connection, as well as two serial ports (110 to 9600 baud) for connection to the SYM board and another device such a printer. image: /media/museum/hardware/synertec_sim1_keyboard_1.jpg - title: EXPANSION BOARD subtitle: '' text: This board made by Seawell Marketing and labelled LBM-4052 (Little Buffered Mother) allowed up to four SYM-1 compatible boards to be attached to the bus image: /media/museum/hardware/synertec_sim1_expansboard_1.jpg - title: RAM BOARD subtitle: '' text: 16 KB RAM board to be connected to the expansion board image: /media/museum/hardware/synertec_sim1_ramboard_1.jpg links: - title: 6502.org - the 6502 processor ressource url: http://www.6502.org/trainers/synertek/ text: This section of the website contains information and binaries for the Synertek Systems SYM-1 Single Board Computer docs: - title: SYM-1 REFERENCE MANUAL url: http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/sym-1%20reference%20manual.jpg text: |- [**SYM-1 REFERENCE MANUAL**](http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm)written by Synertek  compiled/archived by Leland Goertz, René Sommerlatt, and Dallas Shell\  type of document : PDF\  size : 14 MB\  source : [6502.org](http://www.6502.org/) - title: SYM-1 TECHNICAL NOTES url: http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/sym-1%20technical%20notes.jpg text: |- [**SYM-1 TECHNICAL NOTES**](http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm)written by Synertek  compiled/archived by Leland Goertz, René Sommerlatt, and Dallas Shell\  type of document : PDF\  size : 4.3 MB\  source : [6502.org](http://www.6502.org/) - title: HARDWARE THEORY OF OPERATIONS MANUAL url: http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/sym1%20-%20hardware%20theory%20of%20operations%20manual.jpg text: |- [**HARDWARE THEORY OF OPERATIONS MANUAL**](http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm)written by Robert A. Peck  compiled/archived by Leland Goertz, René Sommerlatt, and Dallas Shell\  type of document : PDF\  size : 3.4 MB\  source : [6502.org](http://www.6502.org/) - title: MONITOR THEORY OF OPERATIONS MANUAL url: http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/sym1%20-%20monitor%20theory%20of%20operations%20manual.jpg text: |- [**MONITOR THEORY OF OPERATIONS MANUAL**](http://www.6502.org/oldmicro/synertek/sym-1.htm)written by Robert A. Peck  compiled/archived by Leland Goertz, René Sommerlatt, and Dallas Shell\  type of document : PDF\  size : 6.6 MB\  source : [6502.org](http://www.6502.org/) comments: - author: Ray Holt (United States) date: Monday 24th October 2022 text: Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on the SYM-1. It had a good life and I hear some are still using it. Ray Holt SYM-1, Jolt, Super Jolt Designer - author: Ray Holt (USA) date: Saturday 18th May 2013 text: |- \~rob ... thanks for your kind words.\ \~ everyone - I see ebay has a couple of SYM-1''s for sale for around $400-$500. Probably not too bad considering the original was around $249. Ray\ SYM-1 Designer - author: Rob Ward (Australia) date: Wednesday 4th January 2023 text: Ray Holt, I am about to publish a youtube video on using the Sym-1 to Oscilloscope driver. I struggled to find it demoed anywhere else. Do you know who wrote that chapter in the manual. Was it you? I would like to give an attribute to the author if possible. Check out my Hackaday site on the Sym-1 to see what I have been up to. - author: Dave K (USA) date: Monday 24th June 2019 text: |- The description as "quite a copy of the MOS KIM 1" sells the SYM-1 short - its enhanced features went well beyond those of the original. I vaguely remember the cassette modulation being many times faster (maybe 1600 bps vs. 300?), but one of the coolest features I vividly remember was the built-in raster-scan alphanumeric display. The manual had a driver that would generate 1 line x 32 characters, but I modified it to generate 4 lines of text. One resistor, one capacitor, and some software - now that is elegant design! I''ve still got my SYM-1 sitting in the closet, and I''m not about to part with it. - author: Sibo Buringa (Nederland) date: Tuesday 18th October 2016 text: |- I still got one Sym1 with all documentation as well as seperate keyboard, cassettedeck and expansion card (more memory)\ Status needs to be checked as I didn''t use it for a long time.\ Pictures when wanted can be provided later on.\ Availble to be sold. Regards,\ Sibo Buringa - author: RAVION JF (FRANCE) date: Saturday 23rd November 2013 text: |- Je vends un SYM1 de Synertek complet et en etat de marche.\ Mis en vente aujourd''hui sur eBay.fr - author: Dave T. (USA) date: Wednesday 11th September 2013 text: |- I have a Synertek SYM-1 Model one in very good condition. It has 4K of memory (the only upgrade). Anyone interested, please email me. Thanks, Dave - author: michele (italy) date: Monday 2nd September 2013 text: if anyone want the sym1 with basic program too and most of the manual that was printed about it..you can write me at my email kenio50@yahoo.it - author: Philippe Elie (Paris / France) date: Sunday 1st September 2013 text: Hello, I collect SBCs (i currently have a KIM1, AIM65, MFP1P,...), I''m looking for a SYM1 (and also a TM990/189 BTW...), if some of you fols have to sell, please let me know. Thanks ! Philippe - author: Tim date: Friday 10th May 2013 text: |- I actually learned a lot on this board. besides the MAE (Macro Assembler Editor) in ROM there was a somewhat limited BASIC in ROM as well. Synertek also released a companion terminal board with full keyboard a serial interface and a composite video output. The terminal board actually had 2 processors as I recall. Sure beat the old teletype I had previously been using. The SYM-1 also interfaced to a cassette tape deck fairly easily. I remember creating my first programming language on the SYM-1. It turned out to be almost identical to Forth (as I realized halfway through). 21 cassette tapes assembling to 2k of machine code...had to key things modular :) Probably the best thing about the SYM-1 was the plethora of I/O pins. At one juncture I was driving a prototype bit slice CPU board with the SYM emulating the microcode and control logic! - author: Rene Lefebrve (FRANCE) date: Saturday 16th March 2013 text: |- Hi, this is my FIRST computer. I learn to code in assembler on it, and I made some code for des-assemble the 6502 and 8080 program.\ Now , I''m retired from my jobs of electronician and soft embedded engineer.\ I play with Arduino, but it''s less fun ...\ Sorry for my poor english, but I''m a frog eater near Paris.Bye - author: Woody Baker (USA) date: Saturday 9th March 2013 text: In 1979 I took a class at Rosario Beach Marine research station, in Washington state. It was a summer class "Applications of Microprocessors in Biology". Taught by Nelson Edwards, who actually wrote the SYM monitor, we used the SYM-1 for our lab work. My first computer however, was a Motorola DK-2. 1 mhz 6800 with 256 BYTES of ram and 512 BYTES of rom with micbug in it. The SYM-1 was a super neat computer, and would I ever love to have one now! - author: Shelly (USA) date: Monday 24th September 2012 text: Hi, wondering what one of these might be worth? The one I have is called a trainer I believe $ is mounted on a wooden box with knobs. I''m not very techy, just helping a friend unload his treasures. Any help would be much appreciated - author: Simon Favre (USA) date: Thursday 13rd September 2012 text: I have a SYM-1. I worked at Synertek, and used one as a memory chip tester. I bought one for home with employee discount, along with the KTM2-80 single board keyboard module. They worked well together. I used to load programs on it from a reel-to-reel audio tape deck rather than cassettes. I got the BASIC ROM for it. I used the I/O chips to make an EPROM programmer and wrote an assembly program to burn EPROMS. I have full manuals and schematics. I also found that with some mods, S100 static RAM cards would work with it''s I/O connectors. - author: Ansel_Tk1 date: Thursday 14th June 2012 text: Whoa that dude is hard. core. - author: Rob Ward (Australia) date: Monday 5th April 2010 text: |- Hi Folks,\ I bought a SYM-1 and worked with it for about 4 years. During that time I added an EEPROM writer and began work on my own keyboard and screen drivers. My previous experience was the NS-SCMP kit and the monitor in that was extremely kludgy compared to the versatile SYM-1''s SYM-MON. I managed to find a 110 Baud Teletype machine I was able to design my keyboard drivers for the scanned keyboard I built and designed and built my own discrete logic video display of 64 characters wide and 32 line high.\ I wrote the video driver from scratch and it was integrated into the system to vector into these drivers on start up. This was just so cool and because of the elegance of the original SYN-MON it looked seamless! The EEPROM burner was also used to design a character set for the video display as well with 256 custom 8x8 characters. I eventually had the Microsoft 8k ROM BASIC hooked into it, and I just switched it on and the BASIC, screen and keyboard were "live"!!\ However rather than be satisfied with an AppleII, the SYM-1 had whetted my appetite for a decently written system and that at the time was the other 6502 masterpiece, the 32kBBC Micro. Unlike the AppleII it was much more like the SYM-1 and had its vectoring and modularity of code worked out very nicely. The tape interface was also very clever. I worked on all these machines at home and at school, and the AppleII was not in the race. However popularity in market economies only reflect consumer sentiment not necessarily the elegance of a particular design, anyone who looked closely at the AppleII DOS would probably agree with me.. However the SYM-1 in my formative years was a fantastic eye opener on how to elegantly design a computer system that could grow the user''s experience. Well done Ray, a beautiful bit of work. I sold it lock stock and barrel to a person from Sydney University into Astronomy I think, he sent a mate form Melbourne to check it did all I claimed and he bought on the spot. Rob oc_id: 856 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230603005508/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=856 date: '2023-06-03' --- Synertek was one of the suppliers of the 6502 processor, and the SYM-1 was intended as a chip evaluation board for hardware developers that were interested in programming and interfacing a 6502. The SYM-1 was a single board computer. It had a hexadecimal display and a hex keypad for programs and data entry. It was originally called the **VIM-1** until MOS Technology objected to the name. It was actually quite a copy of the MOS [KIM 1](/museum/mos-technology-kim-1/) offering same fonctionalities plus some enhanced features and connection capabilities, including a true serial RS232 interface instead of a 20mA current loop in the KIM. It also shared same I/O connectors with another 6502 development system, the Rockwell [AIM-65](/museum/rockwell-aim-65/) A ROM chip contained the hexadecimal monitor (written by **Manny Lemas**, the co-founder of Microcomputer Associates) as well as standard I/O routines. Several programming language and utility software were later released. Among them: RAE-1 (Resident Assembler and Editor), FORTH and various flavors of BASIC, of which a powerful single precision version that needed the use of a video terminal. Like other evaluation boards of the times, the SYM-1 was delivered with a full set of documentations which covered all of the 6502 hardware and software capabilities. It was reported to us that the Sym card also came in a 6809 version that supported Motorola compatibility. --- **Ray Holt**, the designer of the SYM card, sent us this note:\ Hi,\ I was the designer of the SYM and [JOLT](/museum/microcomputer-associates-inc-jolt/) in 1974-78. The JOLT sold about 5000 units worldwide and the SYM sold 50,000. Today the Super Jolt, an enhanced version, is still in manufacturing and is being use in an audio tester for the deft. The SYM is still in operation at the Navy lab in San Diego in the Robart robot.\ [http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/land/robart/robart.html](http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/land/robart/robart.html) My earlier microprocessor design for the F14 fightjet can be viewed at:\ [http://www.microcomputerhistory.com](http://www.microcomputerhistory.com) Regards, Ray
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.