Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

You need 16 cores and 16MB+ of memory to control a toaster? A water heater? The washing machine? At the cheapest possible BoM and low power usage?

Because that's the kind of stuff an 8-bit micro does.






No one dreamed of controlling a toaster with an 8 bit CPU in 1969

Faggin started the 4004 in '69 and Hoff was pushing off the bat for it to be more than a calculator chip so it could be used as a general purpose processor. So they might not have specifically been 'dreaming of controlling a toaster', they and others were clearly dreaming about similar control tasks, like printers. They wrote the history down, first person...you might check it out.

Or, gee, was the comment intended to tell us how you tied an onion to your belt in 1969 (which was the style at the time) and made toast as the good lord intended without any newfangled chips in the way, up hills both ways, and we should all get off your lawn? /s


I certainly do pine for the early years of civil discourse

Oh my, pulling the "snark for me and not for thee" card. Sometimes you get the discourse you deserve.

I am so confused



Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: