IMSAI Advert - February 1978

This looks a lot like the "portable" version of the Commodore 64 - the SX-64 - that would appear on the scene some seven years later, and as such was a similar early attempt, like the Osborne, at a luggable computer.

Like the SX-64, it featured an almost-useless 4" built-in screen, but ran an Intel 8080 at 3 MHz (even though the advert says 3 millihertz) on an S-100 bus.

It came with quite a lot of stuff for its $1,499 price tag, which was about £7,480 in 2024 terms.

In the UK, by early 1980, IMSAI seemed to have earned a reputation as a poisoned chalice as far as dealerships were concerned.

Guy Kewney, writing in February 1980's issue of Personal Computer World, mentioned that the closure of micro dealers Corner Store made it the third high-profile IMSAI dealer that had failed to make a profit handling that franchise^[1].

This included the formerly-profitable Comart distribution chain, often seen in adverts of this era.