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Re: �ber IIgs
In article <LSJ36.160422$4K4.26860292@typhoon.southeast.rr.com>,
**** **** <***@***.com> wrote:
> Roy and/or Janet Miller wrote in message <3A4EB459.A03156A5@inetnebr.com>...
>> You forgot the CP/M machines. Hardwarewise the IBM was a cross between the
>> S100 and the Apple II, but OSwise it was a 16 bit clone of CP/M 80 version
>> 2.2
>
> This makes it obvious I still have a great deal to learn. S100 I believe
> refers to the Altair, does it not?
The Altair was one of several S100 computers; some other ones were
the IMSAI, the North Star Horizon, and a few others. Plus you could
get the boards yourself and assemble your own S100 computer. The
S100 was simply a hardware standard for a computer bus, intended to
make the boards portable between different brands of S100 computers.
By vaguely referring to the S100 analogy, CP/M was initially marketed
as "The Software Bus", i.e. by using CP/M, programs (even in compiled
binary form) should be portable between different brands of computers,
at least as long as they used an 8080/8085/Z80 as CPU and CP/M as OS.
> CP/M runs on z80 based machines,
...and on 8080/8085 machines.
> but It's never really been clear to me just what those are.
A few are mentioned above. Another one was the Apple II with a Z80
card inserted, which eventually became the most common CP/M computer.
However, most of the earlier CP/M machines used the 8080 or the 8085,
not the Z80. But later on the Z80 became more popular among CP/M
machines (on a S100 computer the 8080/8085 CPU board could easily be
replaced by a Z80 CPU board).
> The only z80 machines I'm familiar with are those models made by tandy.
> The z80 seems to have been much more popular in arcade machines, than
> it ever was in home computers.
Since home computers at that time were quite expensive compared to
today, only the enthusiasts got them. Thus the home computers were
quite few, and they could easily have been outnumbered by the arcade
machines.
--
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