[alxlaz]

Most of the programs I've seen do what the author calls "Initialization by Instruction" anyway. Bootstrapping and initialization are notoriously tricky to do in hardware, and a lot of us have been bit by this before. Besides, even a compliant power supply (i.e. one that normally meets the electrical requirements, which aren't all that strenuous, to be honest...) can end up being operated in a non-compliant environment.

The cool thing about these things is that most of them are 99% similar, which has helped with endurance more than anything else. It's a weird architecture, yes, but you can often replace a thirty year-old LCD with a brand new one and it'll work, often without any firmware adjustment. That is hard to beat (and, besides, there's hardly any reason to beat it).

[rolph]

interesting, "beat it" was the development name for the drumbeat project, and the lable of the main routine in the original source code. Is it circumstantial that you chose "beat it" in your comment or is there an inside knowledge?

[alxlaz]

It's purely circumstantial :).