The late, great TRS-80

[Ensor]

Hi,

  > Why? The 8080 has all the processing functions on one chip. The
  >other chips used with it are the clock generator and bus interface
  >which IMHO are not processing functions....

I know you can get by without the clock/bus interface chips, but 
*technically* the 8080 is a 3 chip solution which, by his definition, makes 
it a mini.... I've also got a vague recollection that the F8 came in 2 
seperate packages?

I'm just saying, it isn't always quite as cut and dried as it might seem.


BTW Although the 8080 can do without the bus interface chip, it does 
generate a number of fairly important control signals which you would 
otherwise have to latch and generate yourself "manually" as it were. As such 
I consider it an important, albeit external, part of the processor (as in, 
the only reason they made it external was because there weren't enough pins 
on the processor package to accommodate all the required signals).


  >> Likewise, would you consider a processor made from bit-slice devices
  >>to be a mini?

  > Actually, I would. Those chips are not only used to make that particular
  >processor.

Sorry, bad example....I must've been suffering from severe brain-fade when I 
wrote that....I've got a mini downstairs, which I think contains a CPU made 
of bit-slice processors. D'Oh!

What I specifically had in mind when I wrote that was the "mathbox" inside 
my Atari BattleZone (and now I come to think of it, the FPF11).

Never mind... ;-)


  TTFN - Pete.