Chroma CPU

[Gerry Dahl]

R wrote:
> 
> Christian,
> 
> I think you answered your own question.
> 
> Chroma = MC68B09P which BTW is NOT pin compatible with the MC68B09E, both are 40
> pin dip though.
> Polaris = Satan's fetus cpu ( just joking, calm down ) Intel '186
> 
> I think these two synths get mixed up more than most.
> 
> Russ L
> askeyman at earthlink.net
> 
> Christian Hofmann wrote:
> 
> > Hi folks,
> > I recently got me a nice little Chroma. Looking at the (included :-)
> > schematics, I wonder why there's that rumor of an Intel 80186 being the
> > Chroma's main CPU. Unmistakenly there's a Mot 6809 in there, apart from
> > an 8048 (or so) for kb scanning. Even Philip Dodd (sp?) keeps talking
> > about a 186 (in Mark Vail's book), and I think Peter Forrest also mentions it.
> > (Ok, Peter may have read Mark's book as well... ;-)
> >
> > Does that refer to the Polaris, or were there different versions of the
> > Chroma? Considering the amount of software involved, this would have
> > meant a pretty drastic redesign.
> >
> > Can someone shed some light on this?
> >
> > cu
> > Christian

In case anyone was interested, this was Intel's First chip
Not the 8088. IBM Thought that addressing 1 meg of memory was
insane, so they asked Intel to make a smaller/less powerful
CPU, hence the 8088. Thats why we have the 640k barrier!
oh well, live and (small minds) learn. 

Gerry.