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From: robert@nmtvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.arch,net.micro.6809
Subject: Re: Architecture, or Coincidence?
Message-ID: <792@nmtvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 22:14:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: nmtvax.792
Posted: Mon Sep 30 22:14:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Oct-85 07:38:19 EDT
References: <482@ihwpt.UUCP> <>
Reply-To: robert@nmtvax.UUCP (Rob Kenyon -A stranger in a stranger land)
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Organization: New Mexico Tech (You call that an Organization?)
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In article <> doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) writes:
>
>What the 8080 (and later, the Z80) had going for it was, simply put,
>"floppy disks".  For the "high-rolling" computer hobbyist who could
>afford to play with floppy disks, the extra hundred bucks for an 8080
>was unimportant.  And they could also afford the (not very cheap at the
>time) Western Digital floppy disk controller chips.  These FDC's were
>easy to connect to the 8080, but relatively difficult to connect to the
>6502.  The bigger bucks bought much faster data transfer rates.  And
>those transfer rates made it possible to write "real" operating systems
>like CP/M and TRSDOS, and to develop applications which used significant
>amounts of disk data.
>
>Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {calcom1,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug

I have spent more time waiting for a Rainbow, TRS-80, and a Motorola
VME-10 than I have my Apple.  Don't think that I am protecting an 
obsolete machine just because I own one.  Note that the "slow" apple
drives are still used in comparison for many systems.  Considering that
the processor has to do all the disk handling, its speed is fairly impressive
compared to systems with floppy controllers.

I still think Atari's smart peripherals were a mistake.  "My 'smart' drive
makes my computer go "bede-bede" whenever it does anything."  Sounds 
pretty stupid to me...
-- 


"Rock Is a Drug." - Spliff, "Rock Is a Drug"
"Living in the limelight the universal dream" -Rush, "Limelight"

   Robert Kenyon
   New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
   ...ucbvax!unmvax!nmtvax!robert
   or
   ...ucbvax!unmvax!nmtvax!curly!rob


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