Intel system development kit

Each time Intel launched a new microprocessor, they simultaneously provided a system development kit (SDK) allowing engineers, university students, and others to familiarise themselves with the new processor's concepts and features.

Although not marketed as such, the SIM8-01 represents the first 8-bit Microprocessor based Single Board Computer (SBC) available as early as April 1972, priced at $900 ($2,850 in 2022).

It contained all components required to complete construction of the kit, including LED display, keyboard, resistors, caps, crystal, and miscellaneous hardware.

It also had a serial transistor interface for a 20 mA current loop teletype using the bit-serial SID and SOD pins on the CPU.

User programs could call subroutines in the monitor ROM for functions such as: serial in/out, CRLF, read keyboard, write display, time delay, convert binary to two-character hexadecimal etc.

It contains all necessary components to complete construction of the kit, including LED display, keyboard, resistors, caps, crystal, and miscellaneous hardware.

The complete kit includes an 8-digit LED display and a mnemonic 24-key keyboard for direct insertion, examination, and execution of a user's program.

The SDK-51 MCS-51 System Design Kit, released in 1982, contains all of the components of a single-board computer based on Intel's 8051 single-chip microcomputer, clocked at 12 MHz.

It provides a serial port which can support either RS232 or current loop configurations, and also an audio cassette interface to save and load programs.