7 May
2009
7 May
'09
2:54 p.m.
On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 5:40 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 7 May 2009 at 13:30, bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca
wrote:
Yep, and at least one handheld LCD-based "game", IIRC. Once they had
the chip, it found its way into smaller and cheaper things.
I was even in Russia 10 years ago, but didn't happen to run across any
of that sort of gear where I was.
For a alternate world ... Had the PDP 11 been
reduced to a simple IC
design and operation code set, DEC may have got the PC market. Ben.
Didn't the Soviets have their own versions of the LSI 11 and even put
on in a calculator? ?I do know that they had "personal computers"
built around the architecture.
Yep. Also somewhat popular for the market.
But when the PeeCee came out, they happily went for
the x86.
Not right away, I think. Back in the early 1980s, even the home
market in the US didn't leap right on the 5150. I was working at a
childrens' game company in 1984 and we debated supporting the PC
because the numbers weren't on our side yet to develop for that
platform given our audience. There were plenty of PCs in offices, but
the home penetration hadn't exceeded the installed base of Ataris and
C-64s yet. In the end, we did support the PC, but it represented a
minority of our sales. I'm sure 2-3 years later the numbers would
have looked very different.
-ethan