On 25 April 2016 at 17:24, Adrian Graham <binarydinosa...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 25 April 2016 at 16:02, Liam Proven <lpro...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> The Communicator is a *far* more interesting beast, with no 6502 or >> copro -- it's a native 16-bit machine in the BBC family. Remarkable. >> > > I haven't seen a Communicator since 2006 when I exhibited some machines at > the Wakefield RiscOS show - > http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Acorn/WROCC2006/index.php > > That show produced an entire skip full of Archimedes machines and a LOT of > scrap BBC Micros.
Nifty. I wish I'd been there. Never made it to an Acorn Wakefield show. As a non-car-owner (or indeed a car driver at that time), it would have been a long, expensive trip on British trains. I am surprised that I didn't know about the actual significance of the Communicator. It's not like it was lost in the noise of the multitudes of 65816-based hardware or anything! Looking back, the chip deserved to do better. Now I know that the 3 biggest 6502 families all got 16-bit 65816 versions... * the Commodore 64's CMD SuperCPU http://www.cmdweb.de/scpu.htm * The Apple ][GS, apparently limited to just 2.8MHz for tech reasons rather than so as not to compete with the 8MHz Mac: http://www.1000bit.it/support/articoli/apple/a2gs/interview_woz.asp And now I learn of the Acorn Communicator. There was also the 65832, a 32-bit successor to the 65816 was designed, but never made... https://plus.google.com/108984290462000253857/posts/GavXzpHPKGw (I learned of that CPU from list member Peter Corlett.) -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) • +420 702 829 053 (ČR)