Re: PBS show

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

At 03:55 AM 6/14/96 +0000, jonathon wrote:

>> And by refusing to build Masatoshi (?) Shima's design for the Z-80, they 
>
>	The number one selling computer with a Z-80 chip inside was
>	also the number one computer platform which ran CP/M which was
>	The Apple 2e.
>	
>	<< Yes, the Z-870 chip was a third party add on. >>	


Two things:

1.  Eventually, that claim might have been true.  But that's just because 
there were a large number of smaller-volume CP/M computers  such as Altair, 
IMSAI, CROMEMCO, Northstar, Kaypro, Godbout, Morrow, Heath/Zenith,  and 
numerous others, as well as TRS-80' (Models I, II, and II; most of which ran 
TRSDOS instead of CPM) which cumulatively added up to a number vastly larger 
than Apple-II/Z-80 installations.  And I don't want to leave out the "Big 
Board" Z-80 computer, which put everything on a single large PCB, which was 
about a 1980 product.  Or, for that matter, Sinclair's ZX-80 (?)

2.    If anything, the popularity of the Z-80 processor for the Apple 
revealed just how bad the 6502 and associated Apple software was.  People 
don't generally change (add-in) microprocessors if they're satisfied with 
the underlying computer and available software.  In fact, it's even worse, 
because the one advantage of the Apple was its color display, while none of 
the CP/M software being run on the Z-80 card in the Apple knew about color.



Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com