[vcf-midatlantic] Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt

Adam Michlin amichlin at swerlin.com
Sun Feb 9 14:02:27 EST 2020


Ooo.. how could I forget Fairchild? Thanks!

We're kind of in the "perfect world" phase right now. Reality will 
settle in soon about what we have and do not have and what people are 
willing to loan/donate. But reality is no fun!

The AMD bit slice is new to me. Am I understanding correctly that it is 
not a discrete CPU but rather parts of a CPU that could be used 
together? Probably not a candidate for this exhibit, but I'm already 
having ideas for the next one!

I'd love to find a Zilog Z8000, but don't imagine period correct Z8000s 
are so easy to come by. We have a Z8000 machine in the warehouse, but 
one of the big rules for this product is that no vintage computers will 
be harmed to make it happen.

RCA 1802 should be on the short list, too.

AVR is good suggestion, especially since it is a Harvard Architecture.. 
nice to see that represented.

Thanks for all the ides!

On 2/9/2020 12:46 PM, David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 09, 2020 at 11:45:37AM -0500, Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> VCF is working on a historical exhibit of CPUs (not really support
>> chips at this point). Literally just the CPUs.
>>
>> What should we have at the bare minimum? 4004, 8008, 8088, 8086,
>> 6502, Z80, 6800, 6809...?
>>
> Without your criteria hard to say. A lot were intended for embedded
> applications.
>
> Some more 8 bits 1802, F8, TMS 1000, 8048/8051, PIC, 8x300.
>
> greater than 8 bit: 68000 family,  TMS 9900, 6100 (PDP-8 on a chip)
>
> Interested in bit slice such as AM2901?
>
> More to choose from
>
> https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/2006/CompArch/documents/all/trends/cpu_history.html
>   
>> What should we have if we have more space? 80x86, 680x0, Sparc,
>> MIPS, Power, Alpha, ARM, Itanium...?
>>
>> Modern CPUs (to some degree) aren't out of the question, either, as
>> we're hoping to show the progression of Moore's Law from the 4004
>> (2,300 transistors) to present day maybe, for example, a AMD Ryzen 9
>> 3900X (at 9,890,000,000 transistors).
>>
> AVR since popular with hobbiest and continuation of old microcontroller.
>
>> Thoughts? I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of important CPUs.
>>



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