• mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    The meta-analysis on Lobsters is also an interesting read.

    Oh thank god, Lobsters is the name of the website. I was not prepared for a rabbit-hole where crustaceans were somehow relevant to a dead-end Intel ISA. I already know too much about MCS-51 because of VHS.

    • chunkyhairball@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      MCS-51

      MCS-51, as in the Intel Microcontroller? I’m trying to find some link between that chip and the VHS standard, but I’m not immediately coming up with anything. From my reading, I see that some variants of the MCS-51 incorporate DSP functionality, which would make for a good analogue media device, but I’m not seeing any VHS VCRs that use one.

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The same! It’s the “CPU” in the View-Master Interactive Vision. They shipped with a poorly-labeled AMD-manufactured chip that could only be an 8051 or compatible, based on its pinouts. There’s also a 9918-ish video chip, like the ColecoVision, MSX1, or TI-99/4A. The only other big chip is some kind of gate array. I’m almost certain that chip shoves code into 256 bytes of PRG-RAM for the Harvard-architecture MCU… so that Mickey Mouse can fight ghosts with a shotgun.