Interesting that functions that might normally have dedicated specialized circuits or processors are all handled in the software that this processor runs.
> To reduce the parts count, every hardware function is essentially software-defined: video, audio and I/O are all handled by software. Video at the pixel level. Audio at the sample level, in 4 channels. Even the applications themselves are running in a non-existent 16-bit processor (aka interpreter).
Reminds me of what I read about the Xerox PARC Alto. They got a lot done with a minimal set of chips. (A bit-slice CPU I think?)
> Alto’s CPU was an extremely revolutionary microcode processor that employed microcode rather than hardware for most I/O activities. The microcode machine featured 16 tasks, one of which performed the standard instruction set and the others for display, memory refresh, disk, network, and other I/O functions.