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Re: Crosspost: Did the cpu influence the display?

Bill H wrote:

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This message has been cross-posted to a number of revalent usenet
groups, so please do not start a "My system is better than your system
flame war".
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Relying on my memory and a cursory check on a number of websites it
appears that the majority of Z80 cpu based computers had black and
white displays, where as the majority of 65xx computers had a color
display.


I don't think that is true, at least not for home computers.
There are plenty of (early) 6502 based system which supported only B/W display, and there are also plenty of Z80 systems which supported color (ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Sharp MZ series, Enterprise...etc).
If we include CP/M computers (which are Z80 based) then what you are saying might be true. However those where intended for business use. In those days color was not deemed to be important for business computers. 


Now there are exceptions to this, but it makes me wonder, did the CPU
influence the display?
There is no technical reason for having a correlation between color support and the CPU. 


Is there an inherent reason why most Z80 computers had b/w displays and
65xx computers had color?


I don't think that statement is true, so the answer is no.


You may think it would have been cost, b&w would be cheaper than color,
but in the majority Z80 computers where more expensive than 65xx
computers.
I doubt that is true either. For example the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was significantly cheaper than most 6502 based systems, and did support color. 


Now it could have been display size, many Z80 computers used 80 columns
which is hard to achieve when using a TV as a monitor. But on the other
hand, with color you need more memory to achieve a good working
resolution.


See my remark at the beginning.


So the question is, did the cpu influence the display?
No, at least not whether the system supported color or not. Of cource the CPU is one, but not the only, factor that affects how fast a display can be updated, but that is another story.