9 Apr
2021
9 Apr
'21
5:34 p.m.
On 09/04/2021 11:12, emanuel stiebler wrote: >
You're comparing a z80 SBC running CP/M? Or are you thinking of 68000 SBCs?
Z80 CP/M machines were still competitive in 1981-1983 (Osborne, Kaypro)
I've never seen a 68k SBC. Have I missed out
something along the way? Is there a community for 68k SBC's? Kind regards, Andrew
Well, Rob Pike designed one: http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/blit/
I guess the original hacker scene for the 68K was around Hal Hardenberg’s newsletter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTACK_Grounded
The ready-made 68K SBC’s only arrived 1984-1985:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL (I think Linus Torvalds owned one)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_128K
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1000
All these machines are rather similar at the hardware level - 68K processor, RAM shared
between CPU and display. Only the Amiga had a (simple) hardware GPU.
What set the SUN-1 apart was its MMU, which none of the above have.
What influenced the timing was probably that Motorola made the 68K more affordable by the
mid-80’s.
Paul