IEEE-488 and Commodore (was: GP-IB)

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Wed Feb 18 05:32:13 1998

>> Pardon me if I ask a stupid question, but If they were going to
>> implement a high-speed serial bus for the C64/VIC/1541's, why would
>> they use a device that was primarily designed for PARALLEL
>> operation?
>>
>> It seems that a 6850/6851 ACIA would have been much more appropriate,
>> and would have not been such a software mess.
>
> If computer holy war zealots knew the story behind this Commodore debacle
> back in the 80's when the flames were at their highest temperatures, the
> anti-C64 contingent would have had a field day.

Wouldn't they just!

It seems to me that if it's anything like the PET, they were using this
parallel chip for all sorts of functions - keyboard scanning for a start
- and they were trying to save a chip by putting the high speed serial
link onto the shift register function.

<rant> It doesn't take that much more time/effort/money to do it
properly.... <\rant>

Philip.
Received on Wed Feb 18 1998 - 05:32:13 GMT