Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!sdd.hp.com!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!amiga0!mykes From: mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: 8-bit death Message-ID: Date: 5 May 91 06:56:07 GMT References: <1991Apr28.122439.13393@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991Apr28.162045.15585@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> <1991Apr30.112820.2451@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991May1.064455.3058@kessner.denver.co.us> <21135@cbmvax.commodore.com> <24582@well.sf.ca.us> Organization: Amiga makes it possible Lines: 33 In article <24582@well.sf.ca.us> farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes: >daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: > >>It was obviously not reasonable to anyone but Intel. They felt it was >>reasonable because it made the 8086/8 assembly code very similar to 8080/5 >>assembly code. > >Not really. That's much more a matter of choice of mnemonics, rather than >architectural similarity. The 8086 differed significantly from the 8080/8085, >with only some basic architectural decisions (few registers, somewhat skewed >addressing modes) making it "easy" to port assembly code between the two. > >The 8086, ***at the time it was introduced***, was a big step up. Until that >time, the only 16-bit processors you could get were the National Semiconductor >IMP-16 and the Texas Instruments TI9900, both of which were weird, weird, >weird, both in the hardware and the software. The 8086, in comparison, was >a delight. Of course, Motorola did the 68000 a year or two later, but for >quite a while, you chose an 8086 or nothing if you wanted a reasonable >16-bit processor. The 6809 was a 16-bit processor (internal) and was as nice a chip as you can even find today. The only difference between it and the 8088 was that the 8088 has a method of bank selecting memory on-chip while the 6809 required extra hardware (i.e. segment registers). >-- >Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us -- **************************************************** * I want games that look like Shadow of the Beast * * but play like Leisure Suit Larry. * ****************************************************