Showing posts with label Oric1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oric1. Show all posts

Mar 6, 2021

Virtual Si Museum /2109/ Oric1

Released on 5 March 1981, the ZX81 was the successor to 1980s ZX80 and, like its predecessor, was based around a Z80 CPU. Two years later, in summer 1983, I bought my Oric1, my first home computer based around a 8-bit 6502A running at amazing CPU clock of 1 MHz. For a reference, next to the Oric1 logo, is Raspberry Pi Zero based around a 32-bit ARM11 running at CPU clock of 1 GHz. What an astonishing CPU clock rate gain over less than 4decades = 1000 time faster:

Fig.1: The Oric1 and, next to its logo, Raspberry Pi Zero

Fig.2: The Oric1 connectivity (Left to right): display output to drive a PAL UHF TV;  RGB output on a 5 pin DIN 41524 socket; cassette recorder connector via a 7 Pin DIN 45329 socket; printer port, compatible with the then-standard Centronics parallel interface; expansion port allowing full access to the CPU's data address and control lines including external ROM and RAM access/expansion.
REF:
  • ZX81: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81
  • Oric1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oric
  • MOS Technology 6502: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6502
  • Centronics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centronics
  • Raspberry Pi Zero: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi#Pi_Zero





  


Nov 2, 2020

Remember when the keyboard was the computer?

and in less than four (4) decades we are back: 

FROM Oric1:
a CPU (MOS 6502A @ 1 MHz) with 16KB ROM/48KB, Sound: AY-3-8912, Graphics: 40×28 text characters/ 240×200 pixels, 8 colours and simple connectivity - tape recorder I/O, Centronics compatible printer port, RGB video out, RF out, expansion port
TO Pi400:
a quad-core 64-bit @ 1.8GHz CPU Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit (BCM2711) with 4GB RAM (LPDDR4-3200), wireless networking (IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless LAN, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE), dual-display output and 4K video playback it is ideal for surfing the web, creating and editing documents, watching videos, and learning to program using the Raspberry Pi
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