THE PERSONAL AND HOME COMPUTER MUSEUM INITIATIVE

If you appreciated this initiative, you can help it in many ways. None of them requires money, but just a few minutes of your time. Find out in the following list how you can help us to grow and choose the way you prefer.

DONATE AN OBSOLETE COMPUTER OR RELATED MATERIAL

Saving and restoring historical machines in the personal computers panorama is surely the most important activity. Donating old hardware related to the Microcomputer Revolution is one of the most effective ways to help us. If you own such hardware and you want to donate it to our initiative, contact us: you will contribute in saving a piece of computing history and your name will be added to the "Thanks to" section. Shipping costs for each donation are on us and will be fully refunded. Click here for more information about what we are looking for and if what you own is related to our activities.
[Note: due to high shipping costs from abroad and tight budget, we may have to carefully select hardware offered (as opposed to domestic donations). This is even more true for items coming from overseas, which involve customs duties.]

SELL AN OBSOLETE COMPUTER OR RELATED MATERIAL

Although the Personal and Home Computer Museum is a no-profit initiative and is mainly based on donations of obsolete computers, in some particular cases you can sell something to us. In such cases, you will receive a symbolic sum, depending on the piece you own. Click here for a list of items that the Personal and Home Computer Museum may be interested in purchasing and the sums offered. [Note: due to high shipping costs from abroad and tight budget, we may have to carefully select hardware offered. This is even more true for items coming from overseas, which involve customs duties.]

DONATE OLD STOCK AND SURPLUS COMPONENTS
OR LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS

If you work or are into electronics and repairs, maybe you own or have access to old stocks of obsolete electronic components, in particular ICs of the '70s and '80s. Those components, now useless in designing modern devices, can still be used to repair many vintage computers. Click here for an example of components of our interest. The search is extended to instruments for tests and repairs (soldering/desoldering stations, oscilloscopes, power supplies, multimeters, logic probes, EPROM programmers etc...). For each donation, shipping charges are on us and will be fully refunded.

DONATE YOUR EXPERIENCE

If you worked with the hardware of these computers, if you are an engineer, an electronic or TV technician, or if you worked in a repair center, your experience can be precious. Contact us: you might be able to help us in repairing and restoring the machines, taking part in fault diagnosis and implementation of the solutions.

SPREAD THE WORD

Tell the people you know about this initiative. It takes just a word or an email to let them know about this site and related activities.

LINK US

If you are the webmaster of a site, if you manage a blog or a forum, or if you have a page on a social network such as Facebook, Myspace etc... add a link to www.museopc.it. If you like what you have found here or it does seem interesting, you may complete the link with a brief comment or review.

In this section, an overview of the computers and related material that may be of our interest is provided. Here you can verify if what you own is related or not to the Microcomputer Revolution

COMPUTERS FROM 1975-1994 AND RELATED MATERIAL

YES
- Personal and home computers, 8 and 16 bits, of specific brands such as, for example, APPLE (including early Macintosh models), COMMODORE, SINCLAIR, ATARI, OSBORNE, MSX standard, british, french, japanese and american computers introduced from the mid '70s to the mid '90s..
- IBM computers series 51XX, such as 5150 (PC), 5155 (Portable) and 5160 (XT), IBM PC Jr.
- Computers "all-in-one"
- Business computers based on Z80 CPU and CP/M operating system
- Portable computers with embedded CRT monitor
- Videogaming consoles prior to Nintendo SNES
- Peripherals and accessories for the above computers (heavy items to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis)
- Original manuals for the above computers. - Original programs and games, especially if in original box
-

For examples please look at the page Computers. In case of doubts contact us.

NO
- Generic and no-brand PC compatibles based on 286, 386, 486, Pentium and later CPUs, MS-DOS based systems (except what mentioned in the previous list), computers with Linux or Windows OS. - Servers and workstations
- Peripherals for generic PCs such as VGA monitors, printers, scanners, CD-ROM readers etc...
- Non original or pirated software, software released on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, software from the '90s or later.

In this section an overview of the electronic components we need is provided. Here you can verify if you own old stock of components related to our activities and that we accept when donated. Please note that, given the wide amount of components type, this list is only indicative. Most of the ICs we need are in DIL/DIP package.

- 7400 series logic, better if 74LS.
- 4000 series CMOS ICs.
- CPUs and microcontrollers 6500 series (6502, 65C02, 6504, 6522, 6532 etc...).
- CPUs and microcontrollers Z80 series (Z80CPU, PIO, SIO, DMA, Z8000 ecc...) and clones (e.g. Mostek).
- INTEL CPUs 8 bits and 16 bits (8008, 8080, 8088, 8086 etc...).
- Microcontrollers MCS-48 series (8041, 8042, 8048, 8741 windowed etc...).
- Microcontrollers MCS-51 series (8051, 8751 windowed etc...).
- Microcontrollers and support ICs 82XX series.
- Motorola CPUs 8 bits and 16 bits (6800, 6809, 68000 etc...).
- RAM / DRAM / SRAM 4096, 2114, 4116, 6116, 4164, 41464, 41256 etc...
- EPROM 25XX and 27XX series (2516, 2532, from 2716 to 27512, from 27C16 to 27C512 etc...).
- Bipolar PROMs, OTP ROMs, PALs, PALCEs, GALs
- Any kind of MOS and Commodore ICs.
- Any kind of Apple ICs.
- Texas Instruments TMS9000 series ICs.
- Shift registers, video processors, audio chips, PIA, floppy controllers (17XX, MB88XX, FDC9216), MMU, DMA controllers etc...
- Voltage regulators, (78XX, 79XX, LM340K, LM323K etc...) also in TO3 package.
- Transistors of any kind (BJTs, FETs, e.g. BC series, ZTX, TIP etc...).
- Drivers, 555 timers, oscillators, operationals etc...
- CRT TV and monitor components (high-voltage transformers, vertical stages, horizontal stages, east-ovest correction, processors, decoders/encoders, transistors etc...).
- Discrete components: capacitors (tantalum, electrolyte, ceramic), resistors, diodes, trimmers, inductors ecc...
- INSTRUMENTS: programmers for PROMs, EPROMs, FLASH ROMs, PALs or GALs (even if very old), UV erases, oscilloscopes (even with limited bandwidth), logic state analyzers, multimeters, IC-testers, soldering/desoldering stations, old stock of lead solder (Sn/Pb), development boards for obsolete microcontrollers, DC and AC power supplies, VARIACs, insulation transformers.