> On 2021-06-23, at 11:52, Gerrit Heitsch <gerrit_at_laosinh.s.bawue.de> wrote: > >> > I don't think, as no one really cared about the VP42 printer before now :-) >> I still wonder about the history of this particular printer model, if at any point Commodore considered licensing it and sell under its own name just like they did with most other printers, monitors etc. Sure as the principal supplier of 65xx chips and this MOS 6500/1 microcontroller in particular (which may have had competitors, but not likely second sourced?) they may simply have delivered what Alphacom required, and the moniker on the chip just was a coincidence that they chose VIC-42 because it was adapted for use with the VIC-20. > > I'm more interested to see how they made the software for the pinter fit into the 2 KB ROM the 6500/1 has. > > I'm used to tight code, but this, like the code for the 1520 plotter must be another example of what can be done if there is a hard limit. Right. The 1520 content's been very impressive. And they used vector font, which could be stored more efficiently given the stepper resolution there. Here - unless they used something like 48 chars 4x6 bits or so (do we know what the output of the printer is?) - it must have been even more challenging. -- SD!Received on 2021-06-23 13:00:03
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