modern serial terminal

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: modern serial terminal
>   From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca>
>   Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:43:05 -0700
>     To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>Jim Leonard wrote:
>> So what's your thoughts on the 8088?  16-bit registers, 8-bit data path 
>> (but with 16-bit addressing).  Is it a 16-bit CPU or an 8-bit CPU?
>8 bit CPU with 16 bit instructions. :(

Both 8088 and 8086 are 16bit cpus, also 80188 and 80186 they differ only in 
external bus width.  That bus width has no programatic effect in that binaries 
are the same for both.  Internal register sizes are same for both flavors.

The 68K also had the 68008 a 32bitter that had a narrow data bus.

DEC T-11 (PDP-11) also had the option at reset time to configure the bus 
as 8bit wide or 16bit.  The Z280 also had this option.  However the T-11
is without question 16bits and the Z280 is 8bit.

The 386SLC and 486slc were both 32bit but had a 16bit wide bus for interface
convenience.

The point is bus width only determins bus bandwidth and performance
and is not the say all for "xx width" cpu.



Allison