On , Martijn van de Streek wrote to Scott McNay :
MvdS>  MvdS>> The processor reported to exist, but which I've never seen
MvdS>  MvdS>> is a 80186. It must have been succeeded by the 286 too soon.
MvdS>  SM> I've never seen one either, probably because it was designed for
MvdS>  SM> embedded systems.
MvdS> Aah.
MvdS> Strange.
MvdS> A whole series for PC use, and one of them is different.
(More than one)
Not really. Originally, the 8080 was never intended for PC usage. As a
matter of fact PC usage itself was not intended. The 8085 was designed
as a faster replacement for the 8080 that also reduced the number of
support chips to operate it. The 8086 was to be the 16bit replacement.
It featured things that a 8085 didn't have along with a "more" structured
nemonics that went with it. The 8088 was essentially designed to be
backward compadable with 8 bit support IC's. Up to this point, idea of
PC's was still beyond the reach of the consumer as a product.
Imbedded controllers became a second market after the introduction of
personal computers. Hardware wise, PC processors needed to be free of
the need with support IC's along with the ability to use them. Controllers
were marketed under the idea that they had these support IC's built in
and thus removed costing from imbedded designs.
Intel was wise to make an embedded controller that used the same code
as the PC processors. An engineer could code on his PC with languages
that were available to him without extra cost. Intel was more sure of
imbedded sales. Lastly, they didn't have to re-invent a new processor
but make additions on an existant one. They kept this trait through
the 8048 and MCS-48 series, the MCS-5? series, and on up.
Intel wasn't the only ones who did this. Motorola, Zilog, RCA, and
many others were/are doing the same. I thought that the 68705 was
a neat imbedded controller. It was designed for the hobbiest. Then,
with the introduction of Basic-Stamp, it was even easier for the
hobbiest to use imbedded controllers. Almost all of these were
essentially code compadable with previous fare processors...
Glen..
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