Quote:
Originally posted by Felix The Assassin:
quote:
Originally posted by Zink Whistlefly:
Felix - Consoles use micro-processors too, in fact very little seperates the X-Box from the PC technically, yet it is a console. Classifying anything with a microprocessor as a Personal Computer is a completely moot point so I'll make this nice and easy - "IBM PC compatible" games. Now stop being difficult [img]tongue.gif[/img] .
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Yes! A solid answer! Now, for the most part, you do realize the 'IBM Compatible' term is just another historical stone? You might want to look into a term called 'Wintel', as that is what most of all current users here have, and all current manufactured PCs are designed upon.
If you were just referring to game consoles, then you should have so stated. But please don't drag historical PCs, into the same category as a special use toy! The difference between any PC, and any game toy is simply put, BIOS, CPU, FSB, North Bridge, South Bridge, Memory Bank, IDE Bank, Video Bank, and PCI Bank for Wintel, add Math Coprocessor, ISA, Upper and Lower Memory, UART, and others for 'IBM Compatible' series PCs. An xbox might have a processor, but so does the control panel on my H-VAC system(Heat/Vent/Air Condition) which also has java script, what does the ps-2 use?.
Did you know? Apple's Apple II was the first PC to produce color graphics? circa 1977! I'm not being difficult, I'm just being historical. [/QUOTE]History is all good and well!
Yeah "Wintel" does seem to be creeping over the "IBM Compatible PC" term these days but I'm not so sure that it is here to stay in the long run, especially with AMD becoming more and more popular and getting a continally growing share of the market. It's certainly this round to AMD with the A64 vs P4 and the dual core war. Even Windows stands to be threatened by ever growing open source developments such as Linux, and now even MACs latest Linux based OSX which will now run on x86 hardware can emulate windows amazingly well (I have a friend using an A64 with OSX now which is pretty impressive). Unfortunately, Wintel will no doubt become the standard term for a while yet though, since few OEMs (and many, many consumers)
still wouldn't think twice about AMD! Horrible reliability and heat issues which are things well burried in the past will sadly always cloud some peoples judgement of AMD - I can't imagine Wamd ever become used for that reason, even if Intel toppled.
Actually, the XBox has most of those things you mentioned - Motherboard with NB/SB/BIOS, CPU, dedicated GPU, IDE hard disk etc etc (although ISA is a standard long dead now) which was why i used that as my example. The internals of the XBox are pretty much identical to any PC - PSU, Intel PIII processor (733 MHz IIRC), Nvidia GPU (hybrid cross between a GF 2 and 3) - heck, you can even mod chip them and install windows XP, or even Linux on an XBox and use it as a media centre since the hardware is so generic. All I was trying to illustrate was that it can still be categorised as something other than a PC, even though it uses x86 hardware, and for all intents and purposes, is a PC. Not too hot on the PS2 though (other than its raw specs)!
You're right about some of these systems being before my time - the earliest home computer I remember using was the Sinclair ZX-81 when I was a wee nipper. Can't say I've ever had the pleasure of the Apple II!