December
2004, Issue 173
Test Your EQ
Each
month, Test Your EQ presents some basic engineering
problems for you to test your Engineering Quotient.
What's your EQ?
|
Problem
1—What
is it about the 6502 CPU’s bus timing that made it particularly
amenable for use in video-based computers and early game
consoles?
Answer
Problem
2—Back in the days when video displays
were limited to 24 × 80 text only and static RAMs were
rather expensive, there was a neat hardware trick that
allowed direct row-column addressing of the display using
just 2 KB of the SRAM. What was it?
Answer
Problem 3—What was the first CMOS single-chip
microprocessor?
Answer
Problem
4—Another early CMOS microprocessor was the IM6100
from Intersil, introduced in 1976. What was unique about
its architecture?
Answer
Problem
5—The 8008 from Intel was the first 8-bit, single-chip
microprocessor. Name at least two commercially available
general-purpose computers based on this chip.
Answer
Problem
6—The Zilog Z80 had some important features relative
to the 8080 that it displaced in new designs. What were
some of them?
Answer
Problem
7—What was the CPU chip incorporated into the
original line of Apple computers? Who made it? Who makes
it now?
Answer
