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The Amstrad CPC 6128 had an 8-bit Z80 CPU and would only access the first 64KB of 128KB of RAM, even when restarting. Somebody had the idea of using the second
by opminion 14y ago
The Amstrad CPC 6128 had an 8-bit Z80 CPU and would only access the first 64KB of 128KB of RAM, even when restarting.
Somebody had the idea of using the second 64KB as RAM disk to story an exact copy of the main RAM, which would survive a CPU crash, which made it great for development.
To this day I do not know why they put 128KB on a machine with an OS designed for the older 64KB models. I suspect it had to to with legal reasons (lower taxes for higher memory models?). The fact that it also ran a rather dated CP/M might also have been a factor.
- drzaiusapelord 14y agoThe 80s were a crazy time. Hardware was dropping in price in a way no one expected. I remember reading an interview with Nolan Bushnell about the Atari 2600. He said by the time it launched, RAM prices fell by 80%. They could have put in tons more RAM, but during the design phase no one saw it coming, so they designed with expensive RAM in mind. He also complained about his parent company's hesitation to see newer models of Atari 2600s with newer equipment. I guess they thought of it like an appliance. You make one, it lasts 10 years, and you buy a new one when it dies, like a washing machine. The ultra-fast pace of technology threw a lot of old world business ideas out the window. I suspect that Amstrad was in the opposite situation. The hardware got so cheap so fast, the software guys couldn't keep up.