28 Apr
2004
28 Apr
'04
5:30 a.m.
Dave Dunfield wrote:
It's disappointing that the 6809 never received as
much acceptance or use as it should
have. It was truly in a class by itself. Motorola documents show two circles, one
containing the words "8-bit" and one containing the words "16-bit". A
third circle,
linking the other two contains the word "M6809", and this is a good description
of the
part. It was an 8-bit CPU with a great deal of 16 bit capability.
In hindsight, the 6809 while the best 8 processer it only has 64k of
memory space. Time has proved the 64k data and 64k program space and
about 1 meg of memory ( something the PC-XT had or PDP11/unix ) was
needed for useful programs with a resonable OS. Also since the only
common 6809 system was by Radio Shack as games machine you never got the
good I/O like lower case letters and a real serial and floppy drives.
Ben.