Jon Titus - Computer Pioneer comments about 3 of his mentors

info click

Jon Titus

(From Design News November 2013) During my several careers I had the good fortune to learn from three mentors, and as I wrap up my career, they deserve mention. I hope you have had equally good fortune to work for and with such good people.

"When I got to grad school, I met David Larsen, who taught an 'electronics for scientists' class at Virginia Tech. We hit it off right away, and a few years later Dave helped several of us start a company that created educational electronic hardware and books for people interested in computers and electronics. Dave showed us new ways to approach business, gave us encouragement, and suggested helpful marketing ideas. I learned a lot about how to work with people, how to communicate well, how to conduct business fairly, and how to carefully evaluate business opportunities. He might not realize how much I learned from him and how I still enjoy our friendship. Now Dave promotes amateur radio for personal and emergency communications in the Republic of Dominica through his FAIRS charity based in Floyd, Virginia."

The other two mentors Jon mention as his good fortune to work with are his eighth grade science with John Shuttleworth & Roy Forsberg was the editorial director of EDN magazine. 

Design News

Read the entire editorial Jon wrote as his  last in a long series of columns for Design News at retirement in November 2013.  The information above  is quoted directly from the editorial in Design News 11/27/2013.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have always had a great respect for Jon Titus and the 10 years we worked together in the "Blacksburg Group" were some the most rewarding during my 31 year career as a faculty member at Virginia Tech. Thank you Jon - for the friendship and wonderful memories - Dave Larsen

Jon's contribution's to the Blacksburg Group were many and I have written about some of them here in my blog. A few of his contributions are ....

MMD-1 Vintage 8080 Microcomputer reported to be the First Single Board Computer

Vintage Computer - WHAT inspired Titus to design the "MARK 8" Computer ?

Vintage Computer Collector Memorabilia - Titus 8080 Microprocessor  Slide Rule

Vintage Computer MARK 8 - 40 year Anniversary July 2014 - Start of something Big

Vintage Computer MARK 8 sent to MARCH in Wall NJ

Microcomputer - Micro-Designer MD-80 one of the first complete educational / design Microcomputer Systems

Vintage Computer - Earles L McCaul - Author - A personal success story the last 32 years

MARK 8 Vintage Computer

MARK 8 Personal Computer 1974

David Larsen

I  retired from Virginia Tech 17 years ago as a faculty member in the Chemistry Department - it  seems like it was yesterday. I have many fond memories of jobs, projects, family and friends. It has been said  you can't look back but that seems simplistic to me - my computer museum is all about looking at the past - .  at 76 I don't think old and fortunately I don't even feel old - the past memories keep me looking forward and wondering what interesting and fun thing will be next. For sure this Christmas with my wife, children, grandkids & great grandkids gathering at our house was just wonderful.  I counted 28 for dinner last Friday and still today at least 6  in the house today 4 days after Christmas. WOW!!!    
                            .^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   

                                        Join museum on Twitter   Join museum on FB

Vintage Computer - WHAT inspired Titus to design the "MARK 8" Computer ?

A follow up to my blog posting last week about the 40 year anniversary of the "MARK 8" .

Jon Titus - still experimenting with electronics 

Museum Bugs

Hi, Dave.

Here's something for your next email newsletter, which I always
look forward to.

In July 1974--40 years ago this July--Radio-Electronics magazine published the "Mark-8 Minicomputer" article written by Jonathan Titus as a construction project for people who might want their own computer. The Radio-Electronics cover showed the Mark-8 as Jon built it while a graduate student at Virginia Tech.

"I just wanted my own computer," said Titus. "As a teenager I built a lot of circuits with 24-volt relays and created a brute-force design for a 4-bit binary adder. I didn't know anything about logic or gates, so I just stuck it out until I had a circuit that worked. It took a lot of relays and 6-pole switches! Later I took some classes on digital-logic integrated circuits and created some projects of my own. Don Lancaster's articles in Popular Electronics provided a lot of inspiration and good ideas. Later in grad school I got to use PDP-8/L minicomputers and realized how cool they were and decided to build my own computer. About then, Intel announced its 4004 microprocessor, which could have worked, but I waited for the 8-bit 8008 and jumped in. Intel provided a complicated design for a computer board, so I took it and adapted that design so my computer had a front panel of LEDs and switches. The home-computer era had arrived."

"People have asked how I chose the name 'Mark-8,'" continued Titus. "Larry Steckler, the editor at Radio-Electronics wanted a name for the computer project, so on the spur of the moment I decided on Mark-8. I used the word 'minicomputer' because many people knew small computers such as the PDP-8, Nova, and others. I didn't think 'microcomputer' would appeal to people and no one thought about a 'personal computer.'"

MARK 8 at the Smithsonian

Jon donated the original Mark-8 Minicomputer to the Smithsonian Institution in the 1980s and it became part
of the long-running "Information Age" exhibit.

All the best.

Jon

More about how Jon developed the MARK 8.

David Larsen KK4WW

This is a wonderful story about the thoughts and ideas that inspired the MARK 8 Computer.

Thank you Jon for sharing this with our readers. Always good to reminisce about the old times and how "If you believe it you can conceive it"  - great work Jon.

. "by David Larsen" KK4WW Microcomputer Collector/Historian.