Yes. Look for old XTs. This is just an old slow computer with a small hard
disk for memory. You can write and read directy to the parallel port. I use
these because

1) They are usually free.
2) They have a large display.

Warning: An old XT will never be anywhere near as reliable as a PIC. Do not
use one in an application where its failure will make much of a difference.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dale Botkin" <dale@BOTKIN.ORG>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2001 9:34 AM
Subject: Re: [PIC]: Voice synthesis


> On Sat, 21 Apr 2001, Chris Pringle wrote:
>
> > Wow, I never knew any of that.
> > So, can you still buy 8088s? And, if so, what can they do. Do you need
> > EPROMS for memory? Can they be used in the same way as a PIC can?
>
> Yes, 8088's are still available.
>
> They can do anything an 8086 can do...  which is to say, most of what a
> Pentium-III can do, but without the memory management (and way slower).
> 1MB physical address limit, segmented into 64K banks.  The chip is a CPU,
> not an MPU, and has no internal ROM, EPROM, RAM, peripheral functions, or
> anything other than the processor itself.  So no, you ca't use it as a
> single-chip embedded processor, but I've seen designs with as few as 3
> 40-pin packages.  It's more suited to larger and more complex embedded
> tasks or general-purpose computers -- the IBM PC & XT used the 8088, as
> did many other systems.
>
> Dale
> ---
> The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
> discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
>                 -- Isaac Asimov
>
> --
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>
>

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