You have to take a moment to appreciate that a "Major Computer Company" (Burroughs) made bank selling these systems to large businesses to handle things like their accounting etc. And yet today you can emulate the entire system with all of its peripherals on an ESP32 microprocessor that you can buy for $5.
It was this sort of realization by people in the 80's who were seeing Microprocessors that could do much of what computers could do at the start of their careers, who thought "Wow, we can make a 'microcomputer' that does all that too."
It is possible today to write a full accounting package that tracks an entire families budget for all the things they buy and all their expenses and income that runs on a $2 chip with another $5 in peripherals. If you re-use the family TV for a display, you can build an inexpensive appliance that could help a family manage their budget, wirelessly send required data to a tax calculation service or program, and never need software "updates".
This is the opportunity of the "new" microprocessor revolution (in my opinion), which is basically one computer per program. And the whole package "just works."
Friend refused to take small computers seriously, this was late 80s. Reminiscing about Control Data back in 60s. Looked up specs, even then an 80386 with math coprocessor could run rings around the CDC systems.
Don't get me wrong, the CDCs were great achievements, it was just my friend didn't keep up with the times. He'd gone into non-technical work so he can maybe be excused.
I was thinking something like the RP2040 which is Cortex-M4 based. 8 bit Arduinos are nice and all but since you can get a 32 bit processor with hardware floating point for the same price points you don't have to "go that low."
Very true! But probably for different reasons. Interfacing to a micro-controller or a PIC is a bit more complicated than plugging a keyboard and monitor in.
It was this sort of realization by people in the 80's who were seeing Microprocessors that could do much of what computers could do at the start of their careers, who thought "Wow, we can make a 'microcomputer' that does all that too."
It is possible today to write a full accounting package that tracks an entire families budget for all the things they buy and all their expenses and income that runs on a $2 chip with another $5 in peripherals. If you re-use the family TV for a display, you can build an inexpensive appliance that could help a family manage their budget, wirelessly send required data to a tax calculation service or program, and never need software "updates".
This is the opportunity of the "new" microprocessor revolution (in my opinion), which is basically one computer per program. And the whole package "just works."