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I got started with BASIC on a Bulgarian clone of the Apple IIe called Pravetz 8A which the Soviet Union imported in humongous quantities in the late 80s. http:/
by YuriNiyazov 17y ago
I got started with BASIC on a Bulgarian clone of the Apple IIe called Pravetz 8A which the Soviet Union imported in humongous quantities in the late 80s. http://www.pravetz.info/en/pravetz-8a.html http://www.pravetz.info/en/pravetz-8a.html
Needless to say, that's the wrong way to start now.
- jacquesm 17y agoWas that the computer with the 'metric' pitch pins on the chips ?
- YuriNiyazov 17y agoTo be frank, I am not even sure what your question means, so the proper answer is "I don't know".
- jacquesm 17y agoThe soviet 'clones' of the 6800 and 6502 were rumoured (in the West) to fit a metric grid rather than the 1/10th of an inch pitch used in the semiconductor industry elsewhere. Other countries used 2.54 mm pitch heart-to-heart for pins on chips whereas eastblock variations on this were supposedly 2.5 mm. The difference is small, and for packages up to 16 pins you could probably get away with it bending a bit but for a 40 pin package like a 6502 that would not work (or at least, not easily). If you have access to a machine like that it would be interesting to know for sure!
- YuriNiyazov 17y agoNo, I no longer have access to that machine anymore. Interestingly enough, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_hardware_in_Soviet_Bloc_countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_hardware_in... mentions the same rumor, with a reference to a old unavailable edition of Byte magazine.
- jacquesm 17y agoThe difference is small enough that if you wouldn't know about it you probably wouldn't even notice. It would probably take placing another cpu piggy-back on top of the one on the circuit board to clearly see it. Now I'm really curious :)