Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!cs.uoregon.edu!ogicse!qiclab!percy!tektronix!reed!kuch From: kuch@reed.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: What the heck IS "Interactive TV"? (long) Message-ID: Date: 15 Apr 91 07:03:08 GMT References: <1991Apr11.090415.5276@ncsu.edu> <1991Apr11.143222.13728@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <5967@mcrware.UUCP> <1991Apr15.020525.26370@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Sender: nobody@reed.UUCP Reply-To: kuch@reed.bitnet (Jerry Kuch) Organization: Poisonous Reptiles Project Lines: 53 Return-Path: In regard to the slavering discussion that has started, in response to the line that "The C64 stood up to superior systems backed by major Japanese companies..." etc. etc. I think the meaning that was intended is from the past, not the present. Of course the 64 is no big deal today...8 bit micros are effectively DEAD! Find a valid surviving computer that is in the C64's market now? The 8 bit micro field is not current! Hanging on by its fingernails as it bleeds to death, maybe... I think the "standing up to Japanese backed systems" refers to the 1983/84 doomsayers talking of MSX. MSX was an operating system developed at Microsoft to be used on a set of hardware and software compatible, standardized machines coming out of various japanese manufacturers. The MSX operating system was designed to run on a generic, common hardware nucleus consisting of: An 8-bit Z-80 microprocessor A TMS-9918 A graphics processor (as in the TI-99/4A or Colecovision) A General Instruments 8-octave, 3-channel sound chip (8514 I think?) (once again, straight out of the TI or Colecovision) The operating system, in its final version, was, I believe to fill 32K of ROM. The RAM built into the machines was variable, from some manufacturers claiming that they would have 8K, to others talking of 64K or 128K. Where is MSX now? Try Davey Jones' locker. By the time MSX was ready to move on the U.S. market, there really wasn't one. The bottom partially fell out on the low end, and there was almost a saturation effect due to the C64 hitting a street price of $200. Sure, there were all kinds of noble plans to put the above "hardware nucleus" of the MSX machines on a single VLSI chip and drive the cost under $100, but that would have taken time and money to develop that none of these companies deemed worthwhile in the end. Meanwhile the 64 lived on into 86 and 87. The "stood up to systems backed by major Japanese companies" thread seems to have grown out of a memory of MSX. Not, as the one poster seemed to believe, an attempt to justify the C64 as a current "wonder product". (I personally would question the "superior" part in the original posting. The TMS-9918 was no great shakes compared to the MOS 6567 Video Interface II chip in the 64, as it had no more colors, lower resolution, and fewer available sprites per scan line. The General Instruments sound chip....well, in addition to the Colecovision and the TI, it floated in adequacy/mediocrity until it eventually wound up in the original Atari ST systems :-) Flame away, Jerry