2 Jun
2014
2 Jun
'14
1:55 p.m.
Embedded environments certainly seem to be the place
to find
"interesting" CPUs.
And in some cases more normal CPUs that you wouldn't expect. I am pretty
sure I've seen a modem that uses an 8088 as a DSP (!)
I was surprised to see an 80C188EB used on a SCSI interface for a Cipher
tape drive, along with a pair of Z8002s--all on the same board.
I've seen a 6502 used in a QIC tape drive. At least one model of Diablo
dot-matrix printer used a couple of Rockwell PPS-8s.
The dot matrix pritner alogside me (Sanders 700) uses a pair of Z8s and a
Z80. The DEC LA324 also has 3 CPUS in it (I can't rememebr what htey are,
I think soem are 8031-drivatives).
In some high-send preriphrals you might find boards of TTL and/or bit
slice chips wirred up as a specail-purpose processor.
-tony