IMP Advert - February 1983
From Practical Computing
Britsh-made 68000 CPU and 256K Dynamic RAM cards for the S-100 bus
This advert, from Integrated Micro Products of Consett, in County Durham, is notable for a couple of things.
Firstly, 1983 is the year that the old 1975 Altair Bus standard, which rapidly became known as S-100, or "Standard 100", on account of its double-sided 50-slot edge connectors, finally became fully ratified as IEEE 696-193[1] - just in time for it to be mown down by the juggernaut that was the IBM PC and its ISA bus.
This advert features two such cards built to the new IEEE 696 standard: the T-68000 CPU, running Motorola's 68000 processor at 8MHz - although the S-100 bus itself could only run at 4MHz - and the T-256K RAM board, which could somehow overcome the 4MHz limitation of the bus and allow the processor card to run at a full 8MHz if used together.
The second notable thing is that IMP put these two cards together in a case with a small S-100 backplane in it to create the IMP-68 computer system, making the IMP-68 the first ever Unix system of British design and manufacture, according to the Science Museum[2].
Date created: 20 June 2026
Hint: use left and right cursor keys to navigate between adverts.
Sources
Text and otherwise-uncredited photos © nosher.net 2026. Dollar/GBP conversions, where used, assume $1.50 to £1. "Now" prices are calculated dynamically using average RPI per year.