Early Microprocessors in Industrial Microcomputers

[Randy Dawson]

I had the 'opportunity' to take apart 80's era programmable logic controllers:

Gould Modicon 584:    AMD 2901 bitslice based
TI 520, pm 550: TMS 9900 (no suprise here)
TI 565: (Motorola 68000, after designers complained to mgmt, dont force us to use ti micros)
Allen Bradley PLC2:    AMD 2901, peripherals and comm modules KF etc z-80

I knew some of the designers, when asked why the 2901, well speed of course, and second that their own microcode instruction set was 'provable' and could be man rated on these processors.

Randy

________________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2016 11:37 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Early Microprocessors in Industrial Microcomputers

On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 2:36 PM, william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 2:30 PM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> > On Mar 9, 2016, at 1:54 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
>> > ...
>> > I suspect that the nuclear power industry is one place that you'll find
>> the oldest stuff, however, given the long regulatory approval process for
>> change.
>>
>> I remember a nuclear reactor (research, not power generation) controlled
>> by a PDP-9.
>>
>>         paul
>>
>>
>>
> Obviously different than the first microcomputers designed for smaller
> tasks in an industrial setting, but I agree that certainly the last of the
> Win 2000 systems are still churning away customize applications for
> business purposes in the backrooms of shops, plants, etc..
>
>
>
>

... and to that end some of the first micros made for business probably
survived for a long time after similar CPUs were long gone form the home.
--
@ BillDeg:
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