> So, can you still buy 8088s?

I don't know, but you can certainly find that out yourself.  I sorta
remember seeing Z80 selling somewhere recently.  That was Zilog's slightly
enhanced version of the 8080.

> 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?

The early microprocessors all required external memory.  The 8080 only has a
few registers, but no general storage.  Chips of that era also didn't have
the integrated perpherals that PICs do.  It was a major feat just to get a
whole processor onto a single chip.

Most PICs are really microcontrollers as apposed to microprocessors.  The
former is an all in one solution designed for dedicated embedded tasks.
Microprocessors can usually act like more general purpose computers.  I
consider the main distinction is that a microprocessor has a true I/O bus
and/or memory bus.  Some flavors of the 17 and 18 series PICs have this
capability.  In fact, this is referred to as "microprocessor mode" by
Microchip.

Whole computer systems were built around the Intel's 8080, Zilog's Z80,
Motorola's 6502 and others.  Remember the IMSAI, Altair, CP-M, or even the
TRS-80?

I still have a darkroom timer that I built with a Z80 in 1980.  Yes, it
still works perfectly.  In fact, it seems the darkroom timer and the Z80
inside has outlasted my using wet silver processes for home photography.
This darkroom timer, an enlarger, and a color analyser all with dust covers
over them are sitting three feet away from me at the end of the table.  Most
of the table is now taken up with a Polaroid 35mm scanner, an Epson 1270
photographic printer, a PC with a Pentium III, and a 19 inch monitor.  Times
change.


********************************************************************
Olin Lathrop, embedded systems consultant in Littleton Massachusetts
(978) 742-9014, olin@embedinc.com, http://www.embedinc.com

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