[geeks] Photo "sharing" site recemondations please.

Geoffrey S. Mendelson gsm at mendelson.com
Mon Apr 28 23:59:16 CDT 2008


On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 06:19:29PM -0400, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> Of course, a 1.79MHz 6502 was faster than a 4.77MHz 8088.

Of course, the 6502 was an 8 bit processor using an 8 bit data bus.

The 8086 was a 16 bit processor using a 16 bit data bus and was
faster. The 8088 was a cheap version of the 8088 squeezed down to
use an 8 bit data bus, so it was very slow. 

To keep prices low, IBM used the same RAM chips as Apple, etc. did on
their 6502 based computers adding "wait states" (pauses) to keep the
CPU in sync with the slower memory.

One of the cheap upgrades for the 8088 computers was to replace
the processor with a drop in NEC compatible chip. Not only was it cheaper
and faster, also ran the 8080 instruction set, so you could boot CPM
and run your old apps. If I remember correctly, the Intel chip was NMOS
and the NEC CMOS, so it also used a lot less power.

Geoff.


-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM



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