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Comment by JJMcJ | Hacker News Reader

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.

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I hear ya! I find it interesting that TODAY people grab a "Raspberry Pi" equivalent machine when something much much simpler will do.

Super low end Arduino or a PIC board, or something equivalent in power.

But the Raspberry Pi has the advantage of a lot of computer power, and a full set of programming tools, which is nice.

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."

Hadn't heard of the RP2040. It's quite impressive.

I see even the Arduino organization produces a board that uses it.

RP2040 is Cortex M0+. It doesn't have an FPU.

Ah, I sit corrected. I had made the erroneous assumption that the second core was and M4 not another M0+. Thanks!

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.

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