Info about Z80 machine

On 25 September 2013 14:52, Peter Corlett <abuse at cabal.org.uk> wrote: Exactly. This. Whenever I hear some Luddite complaining that you just can't get low-end plain phones any more, I think to myself "well you just aren't looking hard enough, then." The low end is currently getting /lower./ Q.v. http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3040 That's a GSM phone with Bluetooth sold /at a profit/ for US$12, no SIM, no bundle, nothing. The phone market is exploding across the developing world in the last few years, and lots of them are dumbphones or feature phones. Nokia's Asha S40 device & the like are what was keeping it afloat since the Windows Phone debacle. But look at it this way. Moore's Law means the components are getting cheaper all the time. What is a cellphone? Well, the minimum components are: * a radio capable of doing send/receive of voice & data (modern cellular networks are part- or all-digital) * a data entry device for dialling * a display, for seeing who you're dialling, that can show icons for signal/battery strength * a microphone * a speaker * some kind of CPU to manage the above, run the comms stack * some local storage for the comms stack etc. * a battery to power it Very desirable and cheap: * a headphone socket so you can use a headset * possibly even a link to a wireless headset So you have a pocket computer with human-usable input and output of sound and graphics, a local processor and both nonvolatile and volatile storage. Why would you /not/ make that the most powerful capable computer you could, if it did not raise the price significantly? You'd be foolish /not/ to. The more powerful it is, the easier you can make it to use - it can have a richer UI and so on. It can store a phonebook, always a useful addon for any user. It can be a calculator, a handy device that still sells in the hundreds of millions. It can send and receive texts, which are fantastically useful - they make phones usable by the deaf, and in noisy environments, and they're very cheap (free in most of the world, except the USA). Add this stuff, you make your device more appealing in the market. You'll sell more. So you would be stupid /not/ to. Now, we're at the point where for $8-$10 you can have all this - Bluetooth included, and some decoration and a colour display. That is the /absolute bottom end/ where there's little room for competitive edge. But double the price - to a mere $25 or so, still cheap and affordable even in the developing world - and you can add games, a camera, music playback and make your device much more desirable. That's still about as cheap as a big supplier with fixed costs could go, factoring in packaging etc. So don't ask why you can't get devices without this stuff. Ask why you still /can/ get devices without it if you shop around. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884