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How did we cope? (an ode to 8-bits)

My first computer had an 8-bit processor and I suspect that many of those reading this column also started with such a machine.

Back then, and I'm talking about the late 1970s, eight bits was plenty. Hell, who could even afford enough memory to fill the range that the corresponding 16-bit address space offered (that was 64K for those who can't remember or do sums in their head).

My Signetics 2650-based homebrew microcomputer was a marvel, a bit of "state of the art" technology that consumed every hour of my spare time.

Even though clocked at a mere 1MHz, this 40-pin ceramic chip was super-fast and when suitably programmed could calculate prime numbers much faster than I could.

Although its glass TTY serial terminal, operating at just 110 baud, meant it was totally incapable of playing any type of realtime graphics-based games, perenial favourites such as "number guessing" and "tic tack toe" were always an option.

It was just a couple of years later that the shortcomings of my homebrew system were overcome through the purchase of a series of "store bought" micros. These were far more sophisticated and came with software that made them actually useful.

My Ohio Scientific Superboard had a racey 6502 processor and 8KB of static ram, along with a memory-mapped video display that could actually display graphics. This meant that arcade-style games were now a reality (albeit only in monochrome) and I could write software much more quickly due to the built-in BASIC interpreter.

Next came the TRS80 Model 1 and eventually a long list of CP/M based Z80 microcomputers that had the software bundle de jour, consisting of Wordstar, Calcstar and Datastar, providing word processing, spreadsheet and simple database functionality.

dBase II was the next "must have" bit of 8-bit software and it really opened the doors to creating bespoke business software. Built-in ISAM database capabilities, along with a powerful but simple screen-manager meant that instead of taking months to knock up a custom inventory or sales-recording database, the task could be completed in just days.

Then MP/M dropped and suddenly you could run multiple users from the one tiny Z80 CPU dancing along at 4MHz.

I actually developed several bespoke multi-user software packages that ran on MP/M and supported four or more users on dumb terminals.

Remember, this was long before the IBM PC and its 16-bit awesomeness, we were still running 8-bit Z80s and hardware was expensive, very expensive. A fully pimped Z80 system with serial card and maximum memory was about NZ$10,000 with a dumb terminal costing an extra $500-$800 depending on the brand and model. No wonder people wanted to squeeze as much as they could out of such things by running a multi-user, multi-tasking OS.

The amazing thing was that such a system was actually practical and it worked. That puny little 8-bit CPU really could support four users when running simple data-based software with a decent terminal such as a Wyse 50.

Of course there were no GUIs back then, it was all simple text-based using 80x24 characters and no graphics. Data-entry was handled almost entirely by the display terminal and only handed off to the processor when the data-fields were filled out and submitted. This meant that every thing seemed pretty fast, despite the puny processors involved.

Now jump forward 45 years and compare.

Today's computers are processing powerhouses. Multi-core processors buzzing along at amost 5GHz and reclining in the comfort and convenience provided by gigabytes of memory. Boy, I bet the difference in speed is astonishing, right?

Well, unless my memory is failing (quite likely), I have to say that modern computers don't actually feel that much faster.

Faster, yes; but three orders of magnitude faster?

Definitely not.

If I'd just gotten into computers during the past few years I would have laughed at anyone who suggested that a full-blown, multi-user accounting or inventory system could be built using just a 4MHz 8-bit processor with 48K of RAM. From the perspective of today's equipment it is an outlandish thing to even suggest.

Yet, strangely enough, because we didn't know any better, we built stuff like that -- and it worked.

It's amazing what you can achieve when you don't know that things are impossible.

Ah... happy days. I still find programming 8-bit microcontrollers is the funnest part of computing. The challenges of working with very finite amounts of processing power and memory are just so rewarding.

By comparison, vibe-coding with almost unlimited hardware resources might be more efficient and profitable but where's the fun?

Carpe Diem folks!

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