RCA COSMAC MS2000 MicroDisk Development System

[Joshua Rice]

Hi all,  

I’ve recently come across something i’ve soon realised really quite unusual. An RCA MS2000 MicroDisk Development System. 

I’m very green to the COSMAC scene, with this being my first 1802 machine. I’m very interested in knowing the pitfalls i may come across in restoring such a machine. I’ve had a quick cursory look over the machine, and it seems to be complete, with 2 RAM/ROM cards, CPU card, FDC and a (3rd party?) ROM programmer board, along with the PSU and floppy disk drives.

It’s my understanding that these are pretty similar to the RCA Microboard development systems, which i believe are also pretty similar to the ELF “homebrew” microcomputer this group revolves around. I’ve found some manuals on bitsavers,, a website on the Microboard system, along with disk images on the Emma02 emulator website, so I have a reasonable undertanding over what this actually is.

I have a week off work next week, so am planning on taking my time on disassembling and checking the unit over next week.

I’ll endevour to upload some pictures of said machine when i tear it apart.

Thanks, 

Josh Rice