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

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Thu Feb 19 11:27:06 1998

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_wco.com> wrote:
>They did, ever hear the term "the lumbering hippo", that was a nickname
>many gave the 1541 disk drive...

Dumpster diving at the then-recently closed offices of Amiga Corp.
in Los Gatos, I found several disassembled 1541s. Later I talked to
the engineer who'd thrown them out, and he described the 1541 as
the "best computer that CBM ever made." :-)

I distinctly remember a 1541-to-1541 disk copy taking about 40 minutes
when I first got my C-64, but later "fast loaders" reduced that.

The inane serial-to-parallel-to-serial business was no doubt due to
a desire to get things done quickly and with the least disruption of
existing ROM code and known-working applications migrating from the
PET to the VIC-20 and C-64.

- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
Received on Thu Feb 19 1998 - 11:27:06 GMT

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