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If this in the context of the BBC Micro, Acorn had already used the 8271 for floppy support with previous “System” and “Atom” models[1], so it’s probably chosen

If this in the context of the BBC Micro, Acorn had already used the 8271 for floppy support with previous “System” and “Atom” models[1], so it’s probably chosen through inertia from a previous design choice. As for the older systems, does anyone have a date for the WD 1771 (the more common alternative)? The data sheet shown on the Wikipedia page is dated April 1979, and if that’s the release date then it would have been a new, unproven part compared to the intel chip when the System and Atoms were released 1979/80, assuming the floppy drive was an early upgrade (again, I don’t have dates to hand). [1] http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Acorn_fdc.html http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Aco...

kens 6y ago
Google Books shows the WD1771 available and in use in 1977 with more products using it in 1978. (I find Google Books very useful for this sort of archaeology. Change the time range to "1977-1980", search for "wd1771", and then sort by date. Of course this isn't thorough, but it gives a good overview for little effort.)
- fredoralive 6y ago
  Thank you for the research. In that case I guess it’s more of a wrong bet on part choice in 1979 I guess.
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    So, it could still be a joke ;-)
- codetrotter 6y ago
  Off topic but I wish Google allowed doing the same for web results, to search their index the exact way it was some number of years ago so that it would only show results that had actually been indexed at that point in time.
jandrese 6y ago
Very believable that there was institutional inertia for using the chip that they already understood well instead of a brand new chip just appearing on the market. The new chip might be better but you could lose a month or three of development time integrating it, assuming you don't run across an unexpected bug. But at the same time it's no surprise that later models switched over to the cheaper and more technically capable chip.

kens 6y ago

Google Books shows the WD1771 available and in use in 1977 with more products using it in 1978. (I find Google Books very useful for this sort of archaeology. Change the time range to "1977-1980", search for "wd1771", and then sort by date. Of course this isn't thorough, but it gives a good overview for little effort.)

fredoralive 6y ago
Thank you for the research. In that case I guess it’s more of a wrong bet on part choice in 1979 I guess.
- rbanffy 6y ago
  So, it could still be a joke ;-)
codetrotter 6y ago
Off topic but I wish Google allowed doing the same for web results, to search their index the exact way it was some number of years ago so that it would only show results that had actually been indexed at that point in time.

jandrese 6y ago

Very believable that there was institutional inertia for using the chip that they already understood well instead of a brand new chip just appearing on the market. The new chip might be better but you could lose a month or three of development time integrating it, assuming you don't run across an unexpected bug. But at the same time it's no surprise that later models switched over to the cheaper and more technically capable chip.