Re: What is the quintessential Apple II?

["Alex Freed" <alexf@mirrow.com>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message 
z9KdnRi4dbi39D7YnZ2dnUVZ_t2tnZ2d@comcast.com">news:z9KdnRi4dbi39D7YnZ2dnUVZ_t2tnZ2d@comcast.com...
>
> This is what leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I think about adding
> an interface to the Apple II by attaching 10x the number of transistors
> as there are in the *whole* Apple II!  The fact that they're all packed
> into a modern chip or two doesn't make the sense of disproportion go
> away...

My understanding of the A2 design philosophy is quite different.
IMHO A2 is all about using inexpensive off-the-shelf parts in a smart way,
not using parts with a minimal number of transistors.

For example the PAL encoder on the European Apple (that I never saw,
but read about). Uses a DECODER chip to ENCODE PAL color just
because it was cheap and plentiful. It is possible to make an encoder with
ZERO transistors using just coils and diodes, but why bother if the chip is
there?

These days the same logic can be applied to say using a $3 ARM uC  with
tons of transistors inside to say control a disk drive.

-Alex.