This invention relates to alarm clocks and particularly to a novel microcomputer-controlled solid-state alarm clock having a 10-key input keyboard for setting time, date, and the alarm times of two independently operating alarms that may be set to operate at any desired time at any day or days of the week.
The alarm clock of the invention is controlled by a microcomputer system, such as the F8 Microcomputer System manufactured by Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation. The Fairchild F8 Microcomputer System is a versatile family of components comprising a central processing unit to which is added associated components, such as program storage units, memory interfaces, peripheral input/output units, and memories, in accordance with the requirements of the user. The solid state alarm clock of the invention utilizes a 3850 central processing unit, a 3861 peripheral input/output unit, a 3853 memory interface, and a 2708 erasable PROM, all interconnected through a control line bus and the system 8-bit data bus. The CPU is operated by a two-megahertz crystal operated clock and the associated read-only memory is programmed so that the input/output ports of the system will accept the necessary input data and produce output displays of real time, alarm times, month and date, days of the week, and furthermore controls the audible alarm circuitry.