Retro Tech | Fred Harris Talks About your Bits (1986)

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Retro Tech | Fred Harris Talks About your Bits (1986)

You can't walk down the street these days without tripping over an 8-bit computer: You've got your Spectrums, your Commodore 64s, your BBC Micros, your Atari 800s and the like, but the future is going to be the domain of mighty 16-bit and - whisper it - even 32-bit processors.

Just how 16-bit are these 16-bit monsters, though? Are they 'true' 16-bit machines - like the Olivetti M24, the Amstrad PC and the Nimbus, or lousy imposters - like the 'pseudo' 16-bit original IBM PC? And don't even get me started on the preposterously powerful 'true' 32-bit Compaq, or the 'pseudo' 32-bit Atari ST and Commodore Amiga...

Come to think of it - what are bits? Micro Live's Fred Harris explains, with the help of some snazzy BBC Micro-powered graphics and Sir Clive Sinclair - whose ill-fated '32-bit' Sinclair QL promised rather more than it delivered.

Originally broadcast 17 October, 1986.

BBC Archive

public broadcaster

Retro Tech | Fred Harris Talks About your Bits (1986)

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