
The Most Influential Microprocessors of All Time - jfaucett
http://www.pcworld.com/article/171171/influential_processors.html
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lasermike026
To show the MOS 6502 without the Commodore 64 is a HUGE oversight. The C64 was
the most prolific computer of the 80's. Thank you Chuck Peddle for the 6502.
Thank you Bob Russell and Bob Yannes for the C64. Jack Tramiel, thank you for
providing computers for the masses not the classes.

~~~
danmaz74
Yes, it's incredible how the Apple myth is really rewriting the early history
of computers in people's minds.

By the way, the C64 was not just the most prolific computer of the 80s - it
remains the most sold computer model in history.

~~~
huxley
I think that's pretty much out of date, as far as I can find only a total 17
million Commodore 64s were ever sold (even the most unrealistic estimates put
it at 30 million), Apple sells about 15 million iPads per quarter, with models
being sold for about a year.

source:
[http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Commodore#Sales_numbers_.2...](http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Commodore#Sales_numbers_.28End_1993.29)

~~~
danmaz74
Your data is most likely correct, but would you really classify the ipad as a
"personal computer"?

~~~
mikestew
Considering that an iPad can do everything that (as I recall) a C64 could do,
yes. The exception of writing and executing user-entered code could be called
out, but I don't view that as a requirement of a "personal computer" but
rather a "general-purpose computer". Oh, sure, we geeks think they're the same
thing. But most users of C64s that I knew didn't, at least judging from how
they used their machines (i. e., not writing code).

~~~
danmaz74
So, would you also classify the iphone as a PC?

~~~
InclinedPlane
Of course. Why wouldn't you?

~~~
danmaz74
Because this way the term "PC" become meaningless...
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox)

~~~
InclinedPlane
It is a computer that is personal. If you mean desktop, or workstation, or
x86-based desktop, then use those terms.

~~~
danmaz74
So, if I come to you ask you I can use your PC, you will lend me your iphone?

~~~
mikestew
Maybe not my phone, but I'd hand you my iPad. Oh, you wanted to pull some code
of off github, compile it and FTP the binary to a remote server? My iPad has
ssh, login into the remote server of your choice and knock yourself out. But
you more likely just wanted to Google something, in which case the iPad is
probably a better choice than the C64 anyway. "Wah, I want a real keyboard!"
Here, use my BT keyboard. "Boo hoo, real screen, please." Connect to the Apple
TV and use the 50" 1080p TV, I'm sure you'll find it more to your liking than
the C64's video display options.

The C64 gets its sales record trounced by the iPad every year that iPads are
for sale. Your original statement is no longer true, no matter how hard to try
to narrowly define "personal computer". Best to just update your world view
and move on.

~~~
danmaz74
LOL I think my worldview is fine thanks. Next time I'll need someone to
explain to me how technology advanced from 1982 to 2010 I'll call though :)

------
huxley
One thing I noticed was that the article incorrectly claims that the RCA
COSMAC CDP 1802 was used in Voyager and Viking missions, but it wasn't used
until Galileo

~~~
jfaucett
interesting, it appears you are right. When looking for more info as to what
was actually used I found this link :
[http://www.decodesystems.com/cosmac/](http://www.decodesystems.com/cosmac/),
and [http://www.cpushack.com/space-craft-
cpu.html](http://www.cpushack.com/space-craft-cpu.html), that both give a
little more detail as to what was used on the Voyager and Viking missions.

EDIT: (another link:
[http://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html](http://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html))

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djcb
Had a lot of (slightly masochistic) fun programming the Z80 back in the day on
my MSX2 machine.

I didn't have an assembler, so I wrote my code by taking the opcodes from a
table, calculating offsets etc., then turning them into DATA-lines in an MSX-
Basic program, which POKEd the code into RAM, then CALL into the starting
address.

~~~
tluyben2
Same here! And i'm not sure was is masochistic about it; I still write
software for the MSX2 like that now ;) I only knew about Hisoft assembler and
that was too expensive so I never learned anything different than opcodes.

~~~
VladRussian2
nostalgia :) The simple logical simplicity of this

[http://pastraiser.com/cpu/i8080/i8080_opcodes.html](http://pastraiser.com/cpu/i8080/i8080_opcodes.html)

allowed, after some short time without even looking at the table, to type the
binary code directly in (our preferred way of the Forth words implementation
back then, on Russian 8080 clone of course :).

~~~
tluyben2
When I got my MSX from the attic after almost 30 years I still remembered
almost all the opcodes. Took me few days to relearn the rest; I was 8 when I
memorised them...

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InclinedPlane
The 8080 and the 8088 but no 386? No P6?

This list isn't very well balanced. The 386 revolutionized computing. It
introduced an architecture that is still alive today and held market dominance
for over 20 years (which is more than half the duration of the micro-computer
age itself). And the P6 (Pentium Pro) architecture erased the old CISC/RISC
boundary, enabling x86 code to run seamlessly on effectively state-of-the art
RISC cores, extending the lifetime of the architecture tremendously.

------
bane
The gameboy uses an LR35902 by Sharp, which is not _exactly_ a Z80. It's kind
of in the middle of the 8080 and Z80 chips IIR, so you could consider it a
variant of either.

It was also the audio co-processor in the Genesis/Megadrive and the Neo-Geo
alongside the M68k CPUs.

A friend's father, who works in embedded environmental control systems once
showed me a control board for a heating and a/c system that was powered by a
Z80. It had inputs for a dozen or so temperature sensors that were to be
placed throughout a building and the CPU only needed to be fast enough to poll
them every few seconds. The number of sensors was limited to the
addressability of an 8-bit CPU, so under 256.

They should also mention the Japanese MSX standard which was Z80 centered for
the first few generations and is the source of a great many very recognizable
video game series (most of which were ported to the 6502 used by the NES). The
last generation used a crazy variant called the R800, which I suppose would be
like the 80286 was to the 8080.

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KevinMS
Does anybody know if a particular chip was used in the cheap keyboard
synthesizers that came out in the 80's?

What could be more influential than influencing how a decade of music sounded?

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIpfWORQWhU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIpfWORQWhU)

~~~
alayne
That Roland is actually an analog synthesizer
[http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/sh09.php](http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/sh09.php)
That is really more 70s tech.

Much of the 80s stereotypical synthesizer sound is due to the use of FM
synthesis which can be thin sounding. There are a lot of classics from that
era like the Yamaha DX7.

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Crito
Like the Z80, the M68k can still be found today inside of some TI graphing
calculators (the 89 series, 92, and V200. The 80, 81, 82, 83 and 84 series,
and the 85/86 have Z80's).

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angersock
What, no love for SPARC or MIPS?

Further, no love for Transmeta?

Poor show.

~~~
justincormack
I dont think Transmeta ended up being that influential. Sparc/Mips as the
birth of RISC should be there.

~~~
angersock
I was under the impression that they were munched by Intel and basically
became the foundation for the microcode that those chips use now. Am I wrong?

~~~
masklinn
> I was under the impression that they were munched by Intel

Nope, you must be thinking about something else. Transmeta started moving into
IP in 2005, sued intel for patent infringement in 2006 (settled for a cool
250mil, Intel got a perpetual, non-exclusive license out of it), licensed tech
to Nvidia in 2008 and died in 2009 (was acquired by Novafora in January,
Novafora collapsed in July but not before Intellectual Vultures made off with
the patent stash in Feb)

Now part of Intel's activity at the time (the PIII and Pentium M side which
ended up with Core) may well have been inspired by Transmeta (as many allege),
but at the same time Transmeta's activity best matches Intel's pursuit of the
NetBurst (P4) shit-cake, which ran opposite to pretty much anything Transmeta
looked for (unless Transmeta had patents on lofty promises they couldn't come
close to deliver on, then year the P4 fits).

~~~
Symmetry
There's speculation that NVidia's Project Denver is an Efficeon reworked to
target ARM code rather than x86. So there might be a live Transmeta descendant
out in the real world again in a few months.

[http://anandtech.com/show/7622/nvidia-
tegra-k1/2](http://anandtech.com/show/7622/nvidia-tegra-k1/2)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Denver](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Denver)

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jfaucett
came across this and thought other HNers might find it interesting, my
favorite on this list has to be the "RCA COSMAC CDP 1802" for the 2001 quality
alone not to mention radiation-hardening :)

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markb139
I'd say the Commodore PET was the 6502's breakthrough machine

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analog31
I'd give honorable mention to one of, or the whole class of, ultra low cost
and low power microcontrollers that are everywhere.

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cowpig
I don't read articles that require me to click through a slideshow.

