SWTPC Advert - January 1978

South Western Technical Products Corporation started out as a company producing kits of the projects often printed in electronics magazines of the late 60s and 70s, before branching out into microcomputers.

This advert is for its 6800 Computer System, based on the Motorola processor of the same name, together with a terminal, video display and a floppy disk unit.

The sibling of the legendary 6502 processor - the 6501 - shared the same pin-out as a Motorola 6800 as it had been designed as a cheap drop-in replacement, much to the consternation of Motorola which immediately sued 650x creator MOS Technology.

The total price for the whole system as shown was $1,890, or about £10,100 in 2025 money - although note that the minifloppy system costs more than the micro, terminal and video display unit put together.

Minifloppy was the trademark of Shugart and was used for its relatively-new 5¼" disk system, which ended up replacing the older 8" format with smaller and - eventually - higher-capacity floppy disks.

There's also a nice bit of self-referentialism in the advert, with the magazine it appeared in also appearing in the background of the advert.