26 Nov
2007
26 Nov
'07
3:04 p.m.
Hi,
And that's exactly why I think it's a poor choice. You can't _really_
understnad what goes on inside those blocks. There aren't even data
sheets published for some of them, let alone real internal descriptions
(AFAIK). You have to regard them as black boxes.
And as I said before, I regard that is a major problem. I have never
understood this love of simplifying things by treating them as
composed modules that you don't bother looking inside. To me that's a
very confusing way to look at things.
Mind you, I am probably one of the few people who actually battled
through the transistopr-level schematic for the NE555 timer chip (it is
published in some of the data sheets...)
-tony
The C64 is a great machine, but you're not
going to
learn many *deep* details about the hardware (not that
it's necessarily an issue)....
I disagree.
The beauty of the '64 in respect of learning about computer architecture is
PRECISELY because the graphics and sound are handled by custom chips, rather
than a bunch of TTL. You have a nice relatively simple system divided up
into nice logical blocks....nice and easy to get to grips with for the
uninitiated.