3 ms·
Serious question, why is this on Hacker News? is it a classic of some sort?
by aliswe 4y ago
Serious question, why is this on Hacker News? is it a classic of some sort?
- Tor3 4y agoThe 6800 definitely is a classic, yes. The classics included at least 6800, 6502, 8080, and Z80. (To some extent 8085, but as an "expanded" 8080 the Z80 dominated.) The four of them powered the most iconic systems at the start of the microprocessor "takeover" at the end of the seventies (at the same time as I entered my electronics education). The 6800 was kind of left behind by the others eventually, but was used in e.g. the SWTPC 6800, and also in a lot of minicomputer (e.g. DEC) peripherals at the time (including variants like the 6802 with a little on-board RAM)
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoWas the 8085 ever used much as a microcomputer CPU? I've seen it as an embedded CPU, but I don't recall it getting much run as a general-purpose CPU.
- krallja 4y agoYou could run CP/M on it, of course, but Digital Research didn’t see the point in creating 8085 or Z80 specific versions of CP/M, so they just ran the 8080 version.
- renewedrebecca 4y agoThe 8085 was in the Tandy 100 and 102 computers.
- Tor3 4y agoI've only touched one 8085-based CP/M system myself. I don't think they were that common, certainly nothing compared to Z80 and 8080.
- timbit42 4y agoThe 1802 is neglected again.
- Tor3 4y agoThe Cosmac ELF.. yes, I too was aware of the 1802, and there are of course other important microprocessors from that time period. But those four covered a lot among themselves - in particular the trio 6502/8080/Z80. But of course there were others. The Texas TMS9*, the 6800 already mentioned, then there's of course the 6809 (Tandy Color Computer, Dragon (basically a clone), the 6809 variant of the aforementioned SWTPC. Or we can as well find a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor_chronology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor_chronology