from the April 1977 issue of Interface Age magazine

by Adam Osborne

The first small signs of a long predicted shake out are beginning to appear among microprocessor manufacturers. The first two casualties are the Elecronic Arrays EA9002 and possibly the Rockwell PPS-8.

The EA9002 simply took too long to develop. The smallest EA9002 system has three chips: The EA9002 CPU with read/write memory, external read only memory and I/O ports. In mid-1976 that still stood a chance of making it; but now, for simple applications, the EA9002 has to compete with the one-chip F8 from Fairchild and Mostek— and the 8048 from Intel. In more complex applications the EA9002 must compete with the two-chip 8085 system from Intel and the two-chip 6500 system from MOS Technology. Mark the EA9002 as the first stillborn 8-bit microprocessor.

from the July 1978 issue of Byte magazine

by Lou Frenzel - Heath Company - Benton Harbor Ml 49022

All personal and hobby computers are microprocessor based. That is, they use a single processor integrated circuit chip. One of the most important decisions you will ever make in purchasing a personal computer is choosing the type of microprocessor. The semiconductor manufacturers have provided computer designers with a wide range of microprocessing units having varying degrees of power and sophistication. As a result, there are at least a half dozen different processors available in hobby computers. This wide variety of products makes your choice somewhat flexible, or at least it seems that way. In reality, having so many processor styles to choose from, your decision becomes much tougher. If you are a beginner, it may be particularly difficult to make an intelligent choice. The purpose of this article is to provide you with some guidelines in making this important decision. The emphasis is on how to choose the best microprocessor for you when purchasing a personal computer.