Tom Metro wrote: > The 80s equivalent of an Arduino wasn't a TI99 or C64, but a Motorola > 68HC11, or any of the countless micro controllers derived from the Intel > 8080 or Zilog Z80.
Correction...I just ran across a reminder that it wasn't the 8080 I was thinking of, but the Intel 8051. (I believe the 8080 was a CPU (no integrated peripherals), albeit primitive.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-51 They were ubiquitous microcontrollers in the 80's, and got a further popularity boost by being used on the IBM PC motherboard as the keyboard interface, eventually being merged into the southbridge ASICs. (I think they were used in the keyboards, too...nope, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-51#Related_processors it was the 8048, a related MCU.) I vaguely recall there being a flavor of the 8051 you could get with BASIC in ROM that was popular with hobbyists. (I might have one in a junk box somewhere. Never used it.) I guess I easily forget 8051 as I pretty much exclusively used Motorola MCUs in those days. Surprisingly this antique design still lives on today as intellectual property in other chips, such as in the Sigma Designs ZM3102 Z-Wave transceiver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-51#Use_as_intellectual_property ...they are mostly used as silicon intellectual property cores. Available in high-level language source code (VHDL or Verilog) or FPGA netlist forms, these cores are typically integrated within embedded systems, in products ranging from USB flash drives to washing machines... Designers use 8051 silicon IP cores, because of the smaller size, and lower power, compared to 32 bit processors like ARM M series, MIPS and BA22. Modern 8051 cores are faster than earlier packaged versions. Design improvements have increased 8051 performance while retaining compatibility with the original MCS 51 instruction set. There is even an open source version: http://opencores.org/project,8051 -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list Hardwarehacking@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking