4 ms·
Aha! Thank you for the explanation. It works a bit like the Apple II disk controller, then.
by jloughry 10y ago
Aha! Thank you for the explanation. It works a bit like the Apple II disk controller, then.
- kens 10y agoHa! That's not an analogy I would have thought of, but yes, it's the same ROM + latch state machine architecture as the Apple II disk controller. The demo's state machine generated a lot more control signals (24) and controlled the RAM, I/O and the ALU chip rather than a disk drive, but the concept is very similar. (Background: Wozniak's design for the Apple II disk controller used very few chips. A ROM and latch implemented a simple state machine that did much of the control sequencing. The CPU also did a lot of the low-level control.)