20 Aug
2005
20 Aug
'05
9:30 p.m.
There is a sample of code in the PDP-8 programmers
handbook for doing
bit banging on an -8. While many machines used hardware to do this
it was enough hardware (easily done with out a uart) to warrent another
board and represents cost. The trade was using a little of the CPU cycles
to dothe IO in software. For system near the bottom dollar wise this
can save a few bucks. The real question is is it worth 1-10% of the
cpu cycles for IO, and how much IO is needed?
Was there ever an OS for the PDP-8 that used the DL8 natively, as
opposed to shipping the data to a PDP-10 or the like?
Or does it count even if the bit-banging was done on a mini, but for
a larger computer?
Vince