Microchip buys Hi-Tech Software

I do not learn to forge, just to be able to use a hammer.

don

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don
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Not to mention pinout. When they start packing 32-bitters into SOT23-6 -- at similar pricing to 8-bit versions -- let me know. I'd be interested. I'm getting them at about 25 cents each and I buy in very small qtys.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Kirwan

No, but the sub-thread thread was about the PIC32, which (AIUI) is based on a MIPS core. MIPS was designed for *high-end workstations* in the 80's, wasn't it? Now it's in a "PIC"!

8 bit uCs *have* in fact all but disappeared from my own designs, where I can easily justify the (very low) hardware cost overhead. I have not had to do ultra-low power or ultra-high-volume as yet.
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John Devereux
Reply to
John Devereux

perhaps they want to make a decent C compiler C freely avaialble for PIC.

that could potentially sell more parts...

Reply to
Jasen Betts

M68K was used in small un*x servers.

ARM started out on the desktop too.

Reply to
Jasen Betts

Yes, all good GCC targets, and all now mostly used as microcontroller or embedded microprocessor cores.

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John Devereux
Reply to
John Devereux

So, you're using '2 bit' processors?

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Hehe. I wonder how many younger folks will understand. Which reminds me that I'm getting too old, that I even know what you mena.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Kirwan

it

works

Most of them would freak if they ever looked at the 8008 and what little it actually did, for the price. Or the early 'S100' 4K * 8 memory cards that were $1000. I bet 99% of them never heard of the Exorcisor bus.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

controls it

works

I think I paid $295 each, for two. Neither worked, as designed, though. In fact, it was their failure to operate that forced me into learning a lot more electronics than I'd wanted to before. I couldn't afford that kind of disasterous result, being mostly penniless at the time. Just after figuring out a workable solution, MITS mails me a nice letter telling me about the 8 (I think, memory serving) patch wires they recommended to make the design work. A week too late to be of help.

I knew of it, but never had that kind of money floating around.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Kirwan

controls it

works

We had two Metrodata computers based on the Exorcisor bus in the early '80s. They each had six low res NTSC graphics cards for a CATV headend. One had a pair of 8" floppy drives from SMS, while the other had 48K of DRAM to store the text files. United Video paid over $60,000 for the pair, the drives and a HP computer terminal. The sad thing was that a Commodore 64 computer for $395 had better video nd you could use a single drive to load the data into multiple computers. I was told that that was what they did, a few years after I quit. Metrodata was out of business, and the one guy supporting them insisted on being flown to your location, so a simple problem could cost a couple grand and take weeks to fix. They would just spend $85 for a new C64, and kept a few new ones on hand.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

controls it

works

I've got two C64's in the closet -- still in perfect working order, I believe. Along with a ZX81 I built up and some other gadgets around that time. My Altair 8800 was long since given away, though. (I really liked the IMSAI 8080 switches, though, and bought bags of them which I also still have around [red and white].)

Jon

Reply to
Jon Kirwan

controls it

works

The first computer I bought for my business in 1979 was an Apple II with a Microsoft Z80 plugin, 9" monitor, and floppy drive. It cost around £1000. We run cpm and used edlin and the assembler for software development. Even in 1979 we saw the benefit of a hardware independent OS.

In 1982 we got our first couple of IBM compatables from Columbia Data Products along with Z80 plug ins so we could still run the same cpm programs.

Reply to
Raveninghorde

I used to repair the C64, SX64, C128 & C128D for my Commodore computer club in Orlando. I have a couple molded shipping containers (About 27 cubic feet each) of C64 computers that all need the PLA replaced. I have about a dozen 1541 drives, three 1701 monitors, and a couple C128D computers, including one with a built in 1581 drive.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

My first computer was the Timex/Sinclair ZX81, followed by the RS Micro color 10. I had a couple TI99-4A computers, followed by a VIC-20, then my first C64. A friend of mine bought a half dozen dead ones from his computer club in Ohio, and I started fixing them. Then I found a SX64 in a sealed carton being closed out. A few months later a prototype C128 was on display at the Dayton hamfest, and I had to wait six months to buy one.

Over the years I had collected a lot of early PCs, including the KIM, which was a development platform for the 6502. I found it in an old piece of medical equipment. I also had a dozen Boards from early inventory terminals with working 4004 chip sets.

A place I worked in the early '80s wanted me to use a crappy Atari

800 to track inventory but the piece of crap took about six minutes to resort the database every time you made a change so it took longer to enter a repair, than to do it.

The strangest computers I owned were made by National Semiconductor for POS systems. I had two computers, twelve cash registers and ten laser scanners. Everything was wired with something like 10 or 12 pair shielded cable.

My first PC was around 1990, and built from a pile of bad or used parts that I repaired. Then I found out the hard way that the original XT motherboard didn't have a fuse for the keyboard. The keyboard cable caught on fire when it failed.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Eh? You're saying there were C128D's with built in 1581 drive, or was this a special hacked model??

Regards,

Ross..

Reply to
Ross Vumbaca

Yes. The case was damaged near the disk slot and the internal 1571 was bad, so I did a little surgery. it was fun to see the double takes from other Commodore computer users. My next conversion will be to instal a 1581 clone into one of my SX-64 portables. :)

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

They had a built in 1571, 5.25" drive. The 1581 was the 3.5" drive.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

All C128D's had built in 1581 drives. D="Disk"

formatting link

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

Err, make that 1571.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

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