I think the 16-bit computers could be understood as well---the original Mac, Atari ST, Amiga and IBM PC [1]. I have the IBM technical manuals for the IBM PC (X

I think the 16-bit computers could be understood as well---the original Mac, Atari ST, Amiga and IBM PC [1]. I have the IBM technical manuals for the IBM PC (XT I think? Maybe AT?) and the IBM PCjr and they are complete, with BIOS listings and schematics. I also have Amiga Reference manuals (three volumes, includes how to use, what to use, and hardware information). I do agree however, that once you got past 1990 or so, things started getting way more complex. [1] Even though the 8088 had an 8-bit bus, internally it was still 16 bits.