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by PythonicAlpha 3905 days ago
Of course the technique itself is not that new, but it is still amazing, because of the real few chips used. Of course the microcode ROM replaces plenty of those, but still it amazes me, how few chips make up for a workable CPU.

I guess, the PDP has at least 10 times more (equivalent) chips inside.

1 comments

You know, I've never actually counted them although we can estimate them from pictures on the web

M8310 - 53 chips (http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/My%20PDP-8%20Cards/M8310.jpg)

M8300 - 64 chips (http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/My%20PDP-8%20Cards/M8300.jpg)

So 117 chips, so not quite 10X but the nibbler does have an LCD display and if you add the PDP-8/e programmer console to the mix you're probably close to 170 chips. So great estimate!