General public machines (Was: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

On 24 December 2016 at 05:02, geneb <geneb at deltasoft.com> wrote: Seconded. I don't think CBM was scared of CP/M at all. I think it maybe thought it was a handy extra. Some of the story is here: https://hackaday.com/2013/12/09/guest-post-the-real-story-of-hacking-togeth… I am somewhat irritated by Bil Herd's claim that it was the last 8-bit computer. The MSX TurboR was arguably the greatest Z80 home computer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX#MSX_turboR It came out in 1990: https://www.msx.org/wiki/MSX_Turbo_R But its R800 CPU is arguably 16-bit although MSX-DOS doesn't use that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R800_(CPU) It is in part based on the Z800: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_Z800 The SAM Coup? was pure Z80 machine, a lovely British design, a much-enhanced ZX Spectrum 48, and it came out in 1989 and went on sale in 1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAM_Coup%C3%A9 The Acorn BBC Master wasn't all-new but neither was the C128. The Master was an elegant upgrade to the BBC Micro, and was released in 1986: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Master I'm sure there are many more. So no, Herd is definitely wrong. The C128 was _not_ the last new 8-bit computer. It wasn't even the last new Commodore 8-bit computer -- the C65 was arguably that (and a more logical successor to the C64, IMHO). -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven ? Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053