20 Apr
2007
20 Apr
'07
9:46 p.m.
When someone is doing a particular restoration on the
list, they tend to ask
a lot of questions about a particular machine because that is what is on
their bench at the time. Others who are familiar with the machine chime in,
If this is true, and it certainly seems to be, then the 'cure' for no
real 80bit micro discussiosn is to start some.
However, I've noticed that some 8-bit home computer threads don't seem to
go anywhere. A couple of weeks back somebody posted about that
ridiculously overpriced Tatung Einstein on E-bay. I posted some limited
specs of the machine (I have one, it was one of the first machines I ever
RE'd BTW), but it didn't generate much intereest. Oh well...
discussion. I also know for a fact there has been
frequent discussion of the
HP series 80 and 98xx on the list so I must respectfully disagree with that
The HP98xx machines cover a multitude of sins (and architectures!). Later
ones are 68000 based, before that was the HP custom BPC hybrid circuit
(as used in the 9825, 9831, 9845, 9835 -- in fact the 9845 either had a
pair of them or one (for I/O) and a set of 3 boards full of 2900-seires
stuff as a high-speed language processor). The HP9815 is clearly an 8 bit
micro (there's a 6800 in there), the 98x0 machines that I've been known
to go on about are slose to small minicomputers -- the processor is a
bit-serieal thing built from TTL chips.
And by the way - I have far far more micros in my
collection than minis,
So di I, actually, (see the list I posted last night).
But the reason I spend a lot of time on HP stuff (other than the fact
that they're interesting, well-made machines) is that there's an active
HP calculator club in the UK which gives me somewhere to show off my toys
and what I've done with them. A silly reason I suppose, but...
-tony