Southwest Technical Products Corporation, or SWTPC, was an American producer of electronic kits, and later complete computer systems. It was incorporated in 1967 in San Antonio, Texas, succeeding the Daniel E. Meyer Company. In 1990, SWTPC became Point Systems, before ceasing a few years later.

History

In the 1960s, many hobbyist electronics magazines such as Popular Electronics and Radio-Electronics published construction articles, for many of which the author would arrange for a company to provide a kit of parts to build the project. Daniel Meyer published several popular projects and successfully sold parts kits. He soon started selling kits for other authors such as Don Lancaster and Louis Garner. Between 1967 and 1971, SWTPC sold kits for over 50 Popular Electronics articles. Most of these kits were intended for audio use, such as hi-fi, utility amplifiers, and test equipment such as a function generator based on the Intersil ICL8038.

SWTPC also produced some of the earliest commercial light organ kits. These included the single-channel "Sonolite" (1968), capable of controlling 500 watts of lighting, and the more sophisticated "Psychedelia" series (1969–1972), featuring four-channel systems with an 800-watt capacity per channel. The later "Psychedelia II" introduced digital sampling techniques as an alternative to traditional analog filters, switching rapidly between channels to create different visual effects.

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Image:SWTPC_Strobe.jpg|Universal Strobe (1968)

Image:SWTPC_PreAmp.jpg|Stereo preamplifier (1969)

Image:SWTPC_Frequency_Counter.jpg|Digital Measurements Lab, Frequency Counter Module (1970)

Image:SWTPC_Function_Generator.jpg|Function Generator based on Intersil ICL8038 (1973)

Image:CT1024_Monitor.jpg|CT-1024 Terminal with monitor (January 1975)

Image:CT1024_Terminal_System.jpg|CT-1024 Terminal System (January 1975)

Image:SWTPC6800_Computer.jpg|SWTPC 6800 Microcomputer System (November 1975)

Image:SWTPC-6800-01.jpg|SWTPC 6800 Microcomputer System (November 1975)

Image:SWTPC6800_open.jpg|SWTPC 6800 Microcomputer System (November 1975)

Image:SWTPC_AC30_Cassette_Interface.jpg |SWTPC AC-30 Cassette Interface (July 1976)

</gallery>

References

  • SWTPC product history website &ndash; By Bill Dawson and Michael Holley;
  • DeRamp SWTPC 6800 Pages, including a lot of information from Michael Holley and a mirror of Michael Holly's site above.
  • SWTPC page at Old Computer Museum
  • SWTPC M6800 at PC-History.org
  • SWTPC M6800 specs and pictures at Erik Klein's computer page
  • [http://www.flexusergroup.com/flexusergroup/default.htm] Flex User Group Home pages sponsored by Michael Evenson
  • [http://www.swtpcemu.com] 6800/6809 Flex Emulator for x86 based Microsoft operating systems
  • Exorsim Open source 6800 Flex (and Motorola EXORciser) Emulator for Linux/Cygwin