Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.1
Popular 8-bit microprocessors
Processor
Release date
(manufacturer)
Computer used in
Example computers
8008
April 1972 (Intel)
Mark-8
8080
April 1974 (Intel)
Sol-20
MITS Altair 8800
IMSAI 8080
8085
March 1976 (Intel)
Z80
Z80A
July 1976 (Zilog)
Radio Shack TRS-80
Exidy Sorcerer
Sinclair ZX81
Osborne 1
Xerox 820
DEC Rainbow 100
Sord M5/ M23P
Sharp X1
Sony SMC-70
1. TRS-80 microcomputer, 4 KB RAM, 4 KB
ROM, keyboard, black-and-white video
display, and tape cassette, $600, Aug.
1977.
2. ZX81 (1 KB), $200, March 1981. ZX81
(2KB), $200. March 1981.
3. Osborne 1, 5-inch display, 64 KB RAM,
keyboard, keypad, modem, and two 5.25-
inch 100 KB disk drives, $17, April 1981.
6502/
6502A
June 1976 (MOS
Technologies)
Franklin Ace 1000
Atari 400/800
Commodore PET
Apple II/III
1. Atari 400/800, 8 KB, $550/1000, Oct 1979.
2. PET 2001,4 KB RAM, 14 KB ROM, key-
board, display, and tape drive, $600.
3. Apple II, 4 KB RAM, 16 KB ROM, key-
board, 8-slot motherboard, game paddles,
graphics/text interface to colour display
(first ever), and built-in BASIC, $1300,
April 1977.
4. Apple II Plus, 48 KB, June 1979.
5. Apple III, 5.25-inch floppy drive, $4500-
$8000, May 1980.
6. BBC Microcomputer System. 48 KB RAM,
73-key keyboard, and 16-colour graphics,
Sept 1981.
6800/ 6809
1974 (Motorola)
MITS Altair 680
1. TRS-80 Colour Computer, 4 KB RAM,
$400.
780-1
NEC
1. ZX80, 1 KB RAM and 4 KB ROM, $200,
Feb. 1980.
Excited by the new 8-bit microprocessors, two kids from a private high school, Bill Gates
and Paul Allen, rushed out to buy the new 8008 device (Figure 1.2). This they believed
would be the beginning of the end of the large, and expensive, mainframes (such as the IBM
range) and minicomputers (such as the DEC PDP range). They bought the processors for the
high price of $360 (possibly, a joke at the expense of the IBM System/360 mainframe), but
even they could not make it support BASIC programming. Instead, they formed the Traf-O-
Data company and used the 8008 to analyse tickertape read-outs of cars passing in a street.
The company would close down in the following year (1973) after it had made $20 000, but
from this enterprising start, one of the leading computer companies in the world would grow:
Microsoft (although it would initially be called Micro-soft).
