Corrections to trivia

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Mon Oct 5 20:39:37 1998

< I'm not sure how useful a definition it is. Why, for instance, isn't m
< PDP-8/I considered to be microprocessor-based? It has a multi-chip
< processor. So did the IBM 360/30, for that matter.

The 8I was a TTL cpu and was a lot of DEC cards interconnected to make
a minicomputer. There is no one board, or 15, in an 8I that could be
called the CPU or even the core processor. The 8E did reduce that to
three cards timing, major registers, major registers control.

The dividing line is level of integration. The F14 CADC basically put
those three 8E card into one ot two chips.

< While I would be the last person to want to downplay the significance o
< the F-14 computer, I personally think that the word 'microprocessor' is
< only useful if it refers to a single monolithic IC, in which case Ted Ho
< and Intel get credit for the first one.

Microprocessor is a functional name ie: what it do, not what it are.
So in most senses microcomputer and microprocessor are one and the same
but not always interchangeable.


Allison
Received on Mon Oct 05 1998 - 20:39:37 BST