-----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Peter Corlett Sent: Friday, December 23, 2016 2:59 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?
>The "at least in the US" caveat is important :) > >Sinclair's Z80-based ZX Spectrum was outrageously successful in the UK. Every teenage bedroom seemed to have one by the late 1980s. The various 6502-based machines from Acorn and >Commodore were relatively uncommon, and I've seen exactly one Apple II. > >People who know Uncle Clive's unwillingness to spend a penny more than he has to on bulding computers may wonder why they selected the relatively expensive >Z80 over the 6502, but it was because they managed to trick the Z80's address-fetcting and instruction decoding cycle into generating video on the >ZX80 and ZX81, and thus saved more money elsewhere. It wasn't until the Spectrum that they bothered with DMA like proper computers, and then didn't >*need* to stick with the Z80, but chose to keep it anyway. I was in London in 1981 and happened upon a computer faire. Here is a write-up published in Seattle's Northwest Computer Society newsletter. It is an American's view of the English computer scene. http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/LondonComputerFaire/Newsletter.htm Photos http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/LondonComputerFaire/Photos.htm Michael Holley
