Comment by brucehoult
9 days ago
Note that even the "Update" video is nine years old.
Also note that yes it's a computer, but it has 16 bytes of memory to hold both the program and the program's variables.
BYTES. Not KB, not MB, not GB. Bytes.
The demo Fibonacci program is pretty much the most complex thing you can do with it.
But it is in fact a genuine von Neumann computer. And understandable.
It feels almost more useful than BASIC on the Atari 2600, at least.
The MOS 6532 RAM-I/O-Timer chip used by the 2600 (and KIM-1 and others) has 128 bytes of RAM. Game cartridges could add 256 bytes more, along with the program ROM.
For an experience today closer to these machines, you can get a $0.10 CH32V003 microcontroller with 2k RAM and 16k flash.
Here's a 1 Euro retro-computer kit using one that has included in that price support for PS/2 keyboard and VGA video output, all included in the 1 Euro -- even the connectors! All from one 8 pin microcontroller chip:
https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/RVPC/open-so...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfXWs4CJuY0
That's astonishing. They must make a loss on every one they sell. I bet they don't sell many though, they want 21 EUR to send it to Norway!
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