Re:It's often said that the Analytical Engine was before its...
by phire on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @06:42PM
(#30367447)
The reason why many 8 bit micros were derided as toys was not because of the 8bit cpu. 8bit cpus were well-respected.
It was because of the crippling lack of ram and other cost-saving measures.
Having 1KB of ram (or less) on a single board computer like the KIM-1 wasn't an issue, because they were programmed in machine-code and didn't need to drive a screen.
But 1KB of ram on a low-cost microcomputer like the ZX80 was beyond painful. It takes 768 bytes for a full screen buffer, leaving just 384 bytes for the BASIC program, all it's variables and the interpreter state. And it took all the CPU time to drive the display. Actually running the program or even pressing a key would cause the screen to blank and desync.
Even on better micros that had ~4KB of ram, the scope of the BASIC program you could write was pretty limited.
Re:It's often said that the Analytical Engine was before its...
by zozbot234 on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @06:32PM
(#30367343)
8 bit computers were basically glorified calculators that could double as video game systems and perhaps BBS terminals. Even data storage was very much an afterthought on those machines until well after floppy disks entered common use. Then again, as late as the 1960s a programmable desk calculator could be quite valuable for plenty of serious uses.
8-bit PCs were derided as toys in the 1970s and with the benefit of hindsight people now scoff at that idea, but PCs really were much slower, less capable, and harder to program than minicomputers.