origin of gates quote on 640k memory...

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Tue Jul 11 17:21:12 2000

> FWIW, I believe his opinion was that 128K was enough. My recollection is
> that he wanted that amount to run Multiplan, and that is why he talked IBM
> into using the 8088 instead of the intended 8080 for the IBM PC.
> I believe this because Radio Shack sold add on cards for various Z80 boxes
> they made so as to provide 128K for Multiplan (mainly).

An article in Byte magazine years ago on the development of the IBM PC
said that IBM took an unsanctioned R&D project being worked on by a
couple of guys in Boca Raton and it, with all its shortcomings,
became the IBM PC. But the engineers deliberately chose the 8088
for its ease of interfacing (8-bit) over the 8086, which required
more support logic.

I suppose it was possible that IBM chose the Boca Raton project
over some other (unknown to me) 8080-based project due to the
requirement you mention. But I don't think they retargeted their
design from 8080 => 8088.

regards,
-doug q
Received on Tue Jul 11 2000 - 17:21:12 BST