On Mon, Sep 09, 2024 at 01:22:26AM +0000, Erik Christiansen via Dng wrote:
> On 08.09.24 09:34, Hendrik Boom wrote:
>
> > My first machine used hexadecimal, so octal has never seemed as natural
>
> > as hexadecimal in my mind.  But instead or using a, b, c, d, e, f for
>
> > the six extra digits, it used u, v, w, x, y, z.
>
> Now that's very unanticipated indeed. I'd observed hexadecimal
>
> supplanting octal notation as the first single board computers came out.
>
> As A-F can be displayed on a 7-segment display, hex saved one LED
>
> display - a modestly pricey component in the mid 1970s. But most of your
>
> alternative character set would require at least a 16-segment display,
>
> and couldn't be driven by a simple 7447 TTL LED display driver chip.

It did not have an LED display.
It had an IBM electric typewriter instead.

-- hendrik

>
> And so many old uPs have gone extinct: National Semiconductor's PACE and
>
> SC/MP, Signetics 2650, and TI's TMS9900 - not surprising when the
>
> companies are gone too. (I'm not counting superseded targets like 8080,
>
> 8085, etc. They just made way for bigger brothers.)
>
> Nowadays, folk say that ARM chips have more features/$ than AVR, but
>
> it's not just my accumulated software base I'd throw out with a switch,
>
> but the understanding of 444 pages of datasheet on the ATmeg328P alone.
>
> We are so spoiled now - whip up a schematic and PCB layout in KiCAD for
>
> free, send zipped files to Singapore or China, and receive ridiculously
>
> cheap boards back in a week or two. In the old days, it was a week or
>
> two's work with scalpel and crepe tapes to make a 2:1 or 4:1 layout on mylar film,
>
> then have it photographed and a board or two made for hundreds of dollars
>
> - through-plating extra. Who wants AI? What we have is already supreme
>
> luxury, I tell ya. ;-)
>
> Erik

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