Re: Computing Editorial (please read)

[Lee Hart <leeahart@earthlink.net>]

Michael Joosten wrote:
> An Apple is mainly a 'personal computer', for some (obsolete)
> programming, games etc, and then perhaps something to control
> other devices.
> 
> A BASIC Stamp is just a bare-bones microcontroller, with some I/O
> ports.

Exactly. The Apple is a complete system, with keyboard, power supply,
memory, video and other I/O ports, case, etc. The BASIC Stamp is just
one little PC board with the CPU and a trivial amount of memory.

So, they each serve different purposes. You can't replace one with the
other.

>>> Some computers really *are* simpler than radios and audio
>>> amplifiers. In 1978 I built an 1802 "ELF" computer. You can't
>>> get much simpler, even today!

>> Flash-based PICs, AVRs, 8051s, and the like, IMHO.  Many of them
>> don't even require an external resonator, let alone crystal or
>> oscillator.

> Right: Take a look at the designs in the Elektor/Elector/Elektuur
> mags and you'll see.

You misunderstand. The "Elf" was a complete computer; like an Apple II,
it included not only the computer itself (CPU, memory, I/O) but also the
front panel switches and/or keyboard, hex LED display and/or video,
cassette storage, power supply, expansion slots, etc.  

PICs, AVRs, 8051's and the like are just chips; there are no complete
stand-alone computers built with them. About the closest you can get is
something like the BASIC Stamps; a board with one of these CPUs, some
external memory, a 5v regulator, and connectors for I/O. By the time you
add a keypad, video, expansion slots, case, etc so it will function as a
stand-alone programmable computer, your cost and parts count is higher
than it was for the old "Elf".

You probably *could* build a standalone computer with a PIC, AVR, or
8051-series micro; but nobody does!
-- 
Lee A. Hart                Ring the bells that still can ring
814 8th Ave. N.            Forget your perfect offering
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leeahart_at_earthlink.net  That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen