9 Apr
1999
9 Apr
'99
1:25 a.m.
Careful, now! He would have played hell trying to interleave memory
accesses between an 8080 and the video refresh process, since its various
cycle types were so different. It would have been worse YET with a Z-80!
The 6502 also allowed him to proceed with his own DOS and his OWN version of
BASIC, without which he mightn't have gotten the strangle-hold on the
personal-computers-in-business market. It's pretty hard to criticize his
choices, however little I liked the result from the standpoint of seeing it
as a tool, but his (and his partner's) decisions were definitely vindicated
in the marketplace.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Ward D. Griffiths III <gram(a)cnct.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, April 08, 1999 10:34 PM
Subject: Re: stepping machanism of Apple Disk ][ drive (was Re: Heatkit 51/4
floppies)
On Thu, 8 Apr 1999 allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote:
Actually there are two points. One is track 000
and the other is the
innermost (for sa400 35-40 tracks later). Only track 000 was sensored
save for apple didn't use that either. Apple cut the interface to the
minimim number of wires and signals possible and made up the difference
with software, rather clever in my mind.
During the design phase, Woz had more time than money, chips cost money
and software only cost time. Remember that he _wanted_ to use the 8080
but the 6502 cost only a tenth the price. (Imagine what the Apple
might have been like with a decent CPU from the start).
--
Ward Griffiths
"the timid die just like the daring; and if you don't take the plunge then
you'll just take the fall" Michael Longcor