The Micro-Professor MPF-1 was a microcomputer designed to teach the fundamentals of machine code and assembly language. It was contained within a plastic case that could be placed on a bookshelf like any other training manual or book. It was manufactured by Multitech, known since 1987 as Acer. The item is still being sold as of 2018 by Flite Electronics International, a former international distributor for Acer who purchased the copyright for the device in 1993.

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"Here in one attractive package is a Z80 based microcomputer to lead you step by step to a thorough knowledge of the world of microprocessors. The Micro-Professor is a complete hardware and software system whose extensive teaching manual gives you detailed schematics and examples of program code. A superb learning tool for students, hobbyist and microprocessor enthusiasts, as well as an excellent teaching aid for instructors of electrical engineering and computer science courses. But the Micro-Professor is much more than a teaching device. With it you can do bread-boarding and prototyping, designing your own custom hardware and software application with Z80, 8080 and 8085 compatible code. The standard 2K bytes of RAM is expandable to 4K, and the standard 2K bytes of ROM can be increased to 8K. All this plus a built-in speaker, a cassette interface, and sockets to accept optional CTC/PIO. Bus is extendable. As well as being an exciting learning tool, the Micro-Professor is a great low-cost board for OEM's. MPF-Basic software is included in the ROM."

Hardware Specifications

CPU: Zilog Z-80 CPU with 158 instructions and 2.5Mhz maximum clock rate. The MPF-I system clock is 1.79 Mhz.

ROM: Single +5V EPROM 2516 (2532), total 2K (4K) bytes. Monitor EPROM Address: 000-07FF (0FFF).

RAM: Static RAM: 6116, total 2K bytes. Basic RAM Address: 1800-1FFF.

Memory Expansion Area: Single +5V EPROM 2516/2716/2532/2732 EPROM or 6116 static RAM on-Board Expansion Address: 2000-2FFF.

I/O Port: Programmable I/O Port 8255, a total 24 parallel I/O lines are used for keyboard scanning and seven segment LED display control. I/O addresses: 00-03. Programmable PIO, a total of 16 parallel I/O lines, I/O address: 80-83H. Programmable CTC, a total of 4 independent counter timers channels, I/O address: 40-43H.

Display: 6-digit, 0.5", 7-Segment red LED display

Keyboard: 36 keys including 19 function keys, 16 hexadecimal keys and 1 user-defined key.

Speaker and Speaker Driver Circuits: A 2.25" - diameter speaker is provided for user's expansion.

Further information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-Professor_MPF-I

Manufacturer: Multitech
Date: 1982

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH50493. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

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