19 Sep
2025
19 Sep
'25
5:06 p.m.
I was one who bought a month by month Altair kit. The 8080 was defective.
I never got a replacement and upgraded to a Z80 board.
Cheers, Enjoy the waning days of summer.
Jim
On Fri, Sep 19, 2025 at 4:46 PM Steve Lewis via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Another thing showing contemporary
"popularity" of those early processors
is surveys at the homebrew computer clubs. One I came across from Feb
1977 (pre Apple-2 release) had 182 responders.
Of those, 43(IMSAI)+22(Altair)+5(Sol)+5(Poly)+19(other) = 94 are marked as
8080 based, or 51%.
For 6502, there are marked 6(Apple1)+4(KIM1)+9(other) = 19, or about 10%
The rest are a combination of 6800, 1802, Z80, and a few lingering 8008's
systems.
(actually "AMI BOARD", I assume is the American Micro S6800 has a count of
20 -- so that alone actually makes the 6800 "more popular" than even the
6502 at this moment)
It is also noted that about 70% of those 182 systems still had under 16KB
RAM, and only 8% of them had disk drives (of these 182 surveyed).
This is by no means a definitive answer, just a singular insight into one
month at a West coast club in early 1977. But it does suggest the 8080
line was pretty darn popular :)
On the other hand, has the Z80 or 8080 ever had a song written about it??
See song sample entry #4 "Add With Carry" here (The Stop Bits, and of
course the "6502 song"):
https://thestopbits.bandcamp.com/album/return-from-interrupt
Have a good weekend ya'll!
-Steve
On Fri, Sep 19, 2025 at 1:31 PM Christian Liendo via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
here
I agree the 8080 which spawned the 8088 is a huge
impact, however I
think the 6502 and subsequent MOS processors were a huge impact.
Please note, I'm not saying you are incorrect. I just have a different
perspective.
The number of consumer level devices and by consumer I mean not
hobbyist. The number of devices sold with that CPU or a variant was
large and it helped usher in home computing as we know it.
In my opinion PC really didn't do that until later, but in the
beginning you had devices from the VIC-20, Apple II, BBC Micro, etc.
Those machines created a real home market and it was people from that
market who ended up in the industry and created new technologies.
I think without the 6502 and the consumer machines based on them, that
wouldn't have happened or it would have taken longer.
By the way, I found your book and I am going to order it. I have many
books and I will enjoy reading this
https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Research-Guide-Microcomputer-2nd/dp/14116…
On Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 11:41 PM Murray McCullough via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> "Unconfirmed stories and unreliable sources" are what mass readership
is
> about. I'm not saying the MOS 6502 was
not important but its impact
does
> not match the 8080. The very early days the
6502 had its day in the
sun!
> The INTEL monopoly was well underway
solidifying with the 8088 in the
PC
World. I
wrote a book about the early micro-computing days as an
historian
> and do confirm statements I make. I agree Chuck Guzis was the expert
and we do
truly miss him.
Happy computing,