Reminds me of Computer latency: 1977-2017 [1] as recently linked on HN. 1977 and 60 ms latency. The SGI Indy of 1993 also had 60 ms latency.
Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
11–20 of 61 posts
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#12I wonder if Ms. Allaire knows about the C65[1]. Her initial sketch of specs[2] is not too far off from that. IMHO Commodore was right to kill the C65 when they were already making the Amiga 1000. The end of all the 8-bit systems was pretty obvious by '89, when rumors of the c65 started going around - the Mac had been out for five years, the Amiga and Atari ST for four. It would have suffered a fate almost as ignomini…
Yes, the death of 8-bit systems was obvious by 89, but so was the death of the 68000. Motorola was already pushing the failed 88000 by the late 80s. And the 68000 itself was killed off only a couple years later. So I don't really agree with you here. The 68000 was as big of a dead end, and IMHO was a terrible CPU for home computers and gaming machines. It was fast for 16 and 32 bit integer arithmetic, so basically go…
>Likewise, I think Tramiel could have done something similar instead of diving down the 68000 path with the Atari ST.
The Atari ST was built from scratch in less than 8 months after the deal to license the Amiga chipset fell trouhg. The ST is an amazing engineering feat considering the insane schedule.
I agree on you that the 68k is a terrible CPU for gaming, but it got better when there was some cache added to it, starting with the 68030.
I had an Acorn Archimedes with an ARM 2 clocked 8 Mhz (the same speed as the Atari ST, and 1 Mhz faster than the Amiga 1000/500), it was so much faster than my ST.
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#13I would hope it runs something other than BASIC. BASIC is a terrible language, and the only reason it became popular is that there was a book published with a lot of games written in that language. People buying a home computer wanted games, and the commercial game market was initially nonexistent, so people wanted a computer with BASIC, since then they assumed they could play those games. The designers of this new c…
What's the best introduction to Forth or Occam for complete beginners to programming.
(I didn't downvote you, and I have upvoted your post.)
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#14I wonder if Ms. Allaire knows about the C65[1]. Her initial sketch of specs[2] is not too far off from that. IMHO Commodore was right to kill the C65 when they were already making the Amiga 1000. The end of all the 8-bit systems was pretty obvious by '89, when rumors of the c65 started going around - the Mac had been out for five years, the Amiga and Atari ST for four. It would have suffered a fate almost as ignomini…
> The end of all the 8-bit systems was pretty obvious by '89
While it might not have been as easy to see /in/ '89 in hindsight the seeds for the rise (and crowding out of other architectures) of the Intel x86 chips were already well sown and growing rapidly by then:
i386: released Oct 1985 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80386)
i486: released April 1989 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486)
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#15I would hope it runs something other than BASIC. BASIC is a terrible language, and the only reason it became popular is that there was a book published with a lot of games written in that language. People buying a home computer wanted games, and the commercial game market was initially nonexistent, so people wanted a computer with BASIC, since then they assumed they could play those games. The designers of this new c…
BASIC is just a ROM. If I recall correctly, I had a LISP cartridge for my Acorn Electron. Except I didn't know LISP and there was no internet. We had a library though.
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#16I would hope it runs something other than BASIC. BASIC is a terrible language, and the only reason it became popular is that there was a book published with a lot of games written in that language. People buying a home computer wanted games, and the commercial game market was initially nonexistent, so people wanted a computer with BASIC, since then they assumed they could play those games. The designers of this new c…
the c64 supported k&r c via the abacus c compiler.
I learned c on my c64, in fact. a skill I still use 32 years later.
you can download the manual courtesy of archive.org: https://archive.org/details/Super-C_1986_Abacus
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, the death of 8-bit systems was obvious by 89, but so was the death of the 68000. Motorola was already pushing the failed 88000 by the late 80s. And the 68000 itself was killed off only a couple years later. So I don't really agree with you here. The 68000 was as big of a dead end, and IMHO was a terrible CPU for home computers and gaming machines. It was fast for 16 and 32 bit integer arithmetic, so basically go…
>Likewise, I think Tramiel could have done something similar instead of diving down the 68000 path with the Atari ST. The Atari ST was built from scratch in less than 8 months after the deal to license the Amiga chipset fell trouhg. The ST is an amazing engineering feat considering the insane schedule. I agree on you that the 68k is a terrible CPU for gaming, but it got better when there was some cache added to it, s…
I always wonder if considering the processor and the “chunky pixels” of the Archimedes if had had something like a Wolfenstein or Doom back in 1987 if it would have driven sales enough to change.
Ofcourse that was probably pretty unlikely considering the Acorn/Olivetti bet so heavily on the education market.
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#18However, I believe that restriction is the mother of creativity, so I’m trying to restrict myself to keep it limited to what would have been available back then. I'm going to steal that phrasing.
"Solve the problem with what's in the room."—Edwin Land
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#19I wonder if Ms. Allaire knows about the C65[1]. Her initial sketch of specs[2] is not too far off from that. IMHO Commodore was right to kill the C65 when they were already making the Amiga 1000. The end of all the 8-bit systems was pretty obvious by '89, when rumors of the c65 started going around - the Mac had been out for five years, the Amiga and Atari ST for four. It would have suffered a fate almost as ignomini…
I was programming the Acorn Archimedes with its 32 bit CPU in 1988. Took a while for everyone else to get on board tho.
Re: Building the Commodore computer that should have existed
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Likewise, I think Tramiel could have done something similar instead of diving down the 68000 path with the Atari ST. The Atari ST was built from scratch in less than 8 months after the deal to license the Amiga chipset fell trouhg. The ST is an amazing engineering feat considering the insane schedule. I agree on you that the 68k is a terrible CPU for gaming, but it got better when there was some cache added to it, s…
I always wonder if considering the processor and the “chunky pixels” of the Archimedes if had had something like a Wolfenstein or Doom back in 1987 if it would have driven sales enough to change. Ofcourse that was probably pretty unlikely considering the Acorn/Olivetti bet so heavily on the education market.
That was Zarch : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNXypBxNGMo
This was the gold standard at the time.