At 09:51 PM 10/7/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Intel came out the winners; they wanted it the most. But it would have
>happened with or without them. You had the 6800, the 6502 and a whole
>slew of others. The computers built around those processors were just as
>relevant and would have happened anyway.
I will admit up front that I don't know everything, and I am not an EE
(dropped out of community college) but it seems to me that Intel hadn't won
anything until ~81 when IBM came out with their PC. Until then, the Z80
and 6502 were as dominant (if not more so) than the 8080/8085?
In fact, I'll go so far as to suggest that perhaps if IBM had gone with,
say, the z8000, Intel would not be anywhere near as big as it is?
It seems to me that what really got the "cheap computer revolution" going
was the Z80 (CP/M, TRS-80, etc.) and the 6502 (Atari, Commodore, Apple II).
Because no matter what the tech-heads are doing in their garages, nothing
is a revolution until you can buy it at Sears.
There is a similar situation with digital recording -- it's been around and
available for eons, but mostly was only available to those with lots of $$$
(big studios/record companies) or tech-heads. Now, with the
soundblaster/CD-R combo and some software (which, if it isn't available as
shareware, I would be extremely surprised!) anyone can cut a full-digital
(DDD) CD at home.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California
http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Sun Oct 11 1998 - 20:28:40 BST