[vcf-midatlantic] CPU exhibit, reborn

[Adam Michlin]

Yes, indeed!

I'll be posting shortly the list of microprocessors we have and what we 
need for a minimum viable exhbit.

Definite needs at this point are 4004 (yeah, I know), 8080, 8086, and 
Z80. And we could really use a modern i5 or i7 (doesn't have to work, 
actually better if it doesn't work) and a modern ARM.

Interestingly enough, the 6502 was donated by our musuem's Apple III+ 
after it gave up the ghost and Tony donated a working replacement (and 
the III+ now gets run regularly in the musuem, best of all!).

Not to slight any one other chips discussed, but reality has to set in a 
some point. And non-working is better than working since they don't have 
another purpose and ESD is not an issue. We will take extensive ESD 
precautions with any working chips donated or loaned, though.


On 2/20/2020 12:46 AM, Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> Several years ago, I made a CPU exhibit for MARCH
> mostly demonstrating how the pin count
> went from 40 (Z80, 8086, 6502 ...)
> to 64 (wide-body 68000)
> to hundreds (Pentium, Pentium-Pro, AT&T 32000)
> to a thousand.
> It's the "tyranny of numbers" all over again:
> too many pins to casually prototype
> (particularly the dreaded ball-grid-array).
>
> I never completed the accompanying chart
> with other stats: year it was introduced, word size,
> number of transistors, line width, die size, clock speed, CMOS/NMOS/PMOS).
>
> I was hoping to correlate it to the systems that used the chip
> and how so many mfgrs were in the game,
> particularly with the homebrew & demonstrators
> (RCA, Motorola, MOS, Zilog, Intel ...)
>
> Adam found it in the warehouse, so the exhibit is jump-started!
>
> -- jeff jonas
>