Re: A85: Just thinking.

[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: A85: Just thinking.


Hello Jason,

Tuesday, 1 September 98, you wrote to me:

JB> You know something that would be cool? If Texas Instruments came out 
JB> with a calc or a handheld comp that used the z380 processor. I mean lets 
JB> face it, no matter how much people work on ti calcs, they'll never be as 
JB> good as a regular computers because they don't have the processing 
JB> ability, they don't have the speed, they don't have the storage 
JB> capability, or the bandwidth to handle things like sound or multitasking 
JB> or anything that we want it to.

JB> But a z380 calc? That's a different story. 32-bit processing, 8 (16-bit) 
JB> registers, 33mHz clock speed, and 16Mb memory addressing! It would 
JB> combine the power of a 386 or 486 processor with the z80's pristine 
JB> instruction set. I mean there's only so far you can push the z80 and I 
JB> think its almost pushed to the limit as it is. I had an old 286 PC that 
JB> I kept tweaking and tweaking trying to max out its capability, but one 
JB> day I realized that it's like trying to make a Pinto or a Gremlin look 
JB> and run like a Ferrari; it wasn't going to happen because there's only 
JB> so much a 286 can handle. What we need is a calc/mini-computer with the 
JB> power to handle all the stuff we want to do to it. Imagine a calc that 
JB> looks like an 85 but with a 640x480 color display, superfast processing, 
JB> and a 16 or 32-bit expansion bus that you can plug things into like 
JB> sound cards and I/O controller cards to handle HDD's. The neat thing is 
JB> that it would be devoid of any type of software, making it a huge 
JB> frontier for programmers to explore. We'd finally be able to make the 
JB> programs we want to make without worrying about choking the CPU or 
JB> running out of memory: multitasking GUI OS's,  huge action games like 
JB> Doom or Quake, Internet browsers, it would be wide open. And if enough 
JB> pressure was put on Texas Instruments, they'd probably make it.

JB> Anyway, I was just thinking. What do you guys think about it?


JB> ______________________________________________________
JB> Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

i don't think that they would do it

Best regards,
 Kb0sjr                            mailto:kb0sjr@softhome.net
References: