A typical desktop PC from 30 years ago had at least 2MiB RAM. There's no cheap microcontroller with this.
Re:Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
by nicoburns on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @11:58AM
(#31004394)
I guess not, but you can get a Raspberry Pi Zero with 512MiB for £10. That's not $1, but it's definitely still "within relatively easy financial reach of a kid" territory
Re:Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
by eternauta3k on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @09:24AM
(#31002359)
What microcontroller are you thinking of?
Re:Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
by sokoloff on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @09:35AM
(#31002505)
ESP8266/32 is slightly over a $1 but still within the spirit of “more like $1 micro”.
Confining more strictly to $1.00, STM32F030F4P6 (48MHz 32-bit M0) is in spitting distance to a 386 or 20MHz 68030 for some workloads. (50 MHz 486-DX2 was introduced in ‘92, but the typical desktop PC of 1992 was much lower spec.)
Re:Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
by nicoburns on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @10:14AM
(#31003010)
It was indeed the ESP8266/ESP32 I had in mind. The ESP8266 is slightly over $1, but not much! (e.g. available here for $1.17 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32651747570.html)
Quite a few of the following options would give a 386SX from 1992 a run for its money in terms of raw computing power:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/embedded-microcon...
To compete with a high end 486 desktop from 1992 you might have to pay a bit more than $1, particularly if you want floating point.
Re:Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
by Narishma on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @11:56AM
(#31004368)
Not to mention the lack of memory on microcontrollers.
Re:Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
by crobertsbmw on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @09:43AM
(#31002602)
MSP430 g series are under a dollar depending on what package you get. The DIP package is a little more expensive than the Smaller TSSOP but they are incredibly powerful.
In terms of tech that would excite a geeky kid, I think it's more like "you can now buy a $1 microcontroller that's as powerful as desktop PC from 30 years ago". Which is pretty exciting as it means you can throw computing power at all sorts of real world automated which wasn't feasible for a hobbyist before.
TL;DR The modern equivalent of a programmable calculator is an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi not a smartphone.