>Well . . . if you mean really discrete, i.e. no TTL SSI/MSI stuff, you need
>to recall that a single flip-flop was resistors, capacitors and a handful of
>transistors.
>...
>There, methinks you'd be talking about a board as big as your dining room
>table, with miles of wire, and potentially millions of errors to correct.
No, it doesn't have to be as big as a dining room table. Like I said,
I own several examples of bit-serial processors implemented using
discrete components - for example, my Monroe programmable calculator -
which pack everything onto a few square feet of printed circuit board,
and not incredibly dense PCB's at that.
There are other examples of bit-serial processors in my collection -
for instance, the HP 9100A - where there is some, but not much, integration
used. The big PCB in the 9100A is the ROM, while the processor itself
resides on a daughtercard!
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
Received on Wed Oct 20 1999 - 11:47:43 BST