Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On Wed, 11 Dec 2024 03:50:32 -0500, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

There is another golden oldie. The 5120 was a strange beast, selectable
for either BASIC or APL. It's successor, the System/23, had an 8085
rather than IBM's homebrew but had a similar look. Familiarity with the
8085 was one of the factors for using the 8088.

 
   Umm ... 5120 came well after the 8088. Got yer numbers right ?
 
   The 8085 was a pretty fair predecessor for the 8088 however. Not THAT
   much diff. However, for the time,
   the Z80 was maybe a tad better.
 
   Would still like to get my hands on a working S-100 Z80 system .....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5120

Technically the 8088 processor was released in '79 while the 5120 was
released in Feb '80.  The System/23 with the 8085 was released in July
'81. The 5150 PC was released in August 1981 more than a year after the
5120. The 5100 itself was released in '75, and the 5110 in '78. Same PALM
processor throughout. The 5110 had more I/O like floppy interfaces, while
the 5120 had a larger screen and 2 built in 8" floppies.

The company I worked for bought the 5120 and I created an inventory
control system on it but my personal machine at the time was an Osborne 1
CP/M 'portable' that I bought in April '81. I don't remember when I got
around to buying a PC clone, maybe '84? It was one of the brand x mystery
boxes with the turbo switch.