Architecture
The 8100 was a 32-bit processor, but its instruction set reveals its lineage as the culmination of a line of so-called Universal Controller processors internally designated UC0 (8-bit), UC.5 (16-bit) and UC1 (32-bit). Each processor carried along the instruction set and architecture of the smaller processors, allowing programs written for a smaller processor to run on a larger one without change.
The 8100 had another interesting distinction in being one of the first commercially available systems to have a network with characteristics of what we now call local area networks, in particular the mechanism of packet passing. It was called the "8100 Loop" or "R-Loop" and it supported various attached terminals (such as the 3104), printers (such as the free-standing 3268-1) and other devices. Topologically this arranged terminals in a ring, with redundant sets of wires which allowed for a break in the wire to be tolerated simply by "turning back" the data on each side of the break.
The 8100 also supported a terminal called the 8775 (which shared the same case as the 3279 colour display terminal for IBM's mainframes and, like the 3279 was designed at IBM's UK Development Lab at Hursley Park, England) which was the first to ship with the ability to download its functionality from the host computer to which it was attached.
Read more about this topic: IBM 8100
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