11 Jul
2000
11 Jul
'00
10:21 a.m.
FWIW, I believe his opinion was that 128K was enough.
My recollection is
that he wanted that amount to run Multiplan, and that is why he talked IBM
into using the 8088 instead of the intended 8080 for the IBM PC.
I believe this because Radio Shack sold add on cards for various Z80 boxes
they made so as to provide 128K for Multiplan (mainly).
An article in Byte magazine years ago on the development of the IBM PC
said that IBM took an unsanctioned R&D project being worked on by a
couple of guys in Boca Raton and it, with all its shortcomings,
became the IBM PC. But the engineers deliberately chose the 8088
for its ease of interfacing (8-bit) over the 8086, which required
more support logic.
I suppose it was possible that IBM chose the Boca Raton project
over some other (unknown to me) 8080-based project due to the
requirement you mention. But I don't think they retargeted their
design from 8080 => 8088.
regards,
-doug q