Four-Phase systems - The Creator, the Company and the System IV/70 Computer - Part 1

In 2022 I came across a computer I had only heard of once before in my life. A year and a half later I think I've gone through enough of what remains known on the Internet to talk a little more about what I found. This is the System IV/70 ("Four-Seventy") computer and this is the remarkable history behind the microprocessor that makes it run, the AL1. Lets talk about everything Four-Phase and go through what lives inside my system.

Ken Shirriff's blog on AL1 and it's importance in the early world of microprocessors alongside the Texas Instruments TMX1795 can be found here - http://www.righto.com/2015/05/the-tex...

More information on Lee Boysel and the early history of microprocessing can be found here along with more details on the famous courtroom demonstration: https://ece.engin.umich.edu/stories/l...

An early brochure from Four-Phase Systems covering their computer, it's optional capabilities and its software options is available here - https://www.computerhistory.org/broch...

High-resolution (multi-megabyte) photographs of all the boards seen today in the video are now available on Bitsavers - http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/fourPhas...
(Thank you Bitsavers for archiving this!)

Interestingly, Four-Phase Systems seem to of fallen into a historical black hole. Almost no systems still exist and likewise documentation, software, hardware and technical papers are hard to come by. I have been working on efforts to help locate and digitize items as I can (affordably) come across them before the system becomes completely extinct but I'm always willing to find more. If you wish to reach out to me regarding Four-Phase systems I can be reached by email, an ongoing thread on the VCfed forums or other archival operations such as Bitsavers or the Vintage computer Federation are willing to help in whatever way we can.

Finally I would like to credit the Museum of Information Technology at Arlington and the Four-Phase Facebook users group both for providing information and photos, along with other former employees who wish to remain anonymous. Without your historical momentos there would be much, much less to research about this otherwise forgotten machine.

Remember to follow me on "X" at @CelGenStudios to keep up to date on what I am doing and what might be happening in the next video.