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When did the 8-bit era end?

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punchy71

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Hello,
I was just wondering when most people stopped using their 8-bit personal computers in favor of the next generation of machines. I'm just trying to get a general idea of when the hey-day of the 8-bit era ended. I have a rough idea of when it began but no clue when it actually ended. Can I use the last date of when the last mainstream 8-bit machine rolled off the assembly line or should I assume that it continued on for a few more years after that date? And if so, when?
Thank you
 
Depends on how you define the end of an era. One of the odder things about the 8-bit era is that many systems saw a brief increase in the amount of software released for the years immediately following production ceasing.

1986 was when IBM PC derived designs accounted for more sales volume than all 8-bit systems combined. 8-bit systems could continue being profitable for a long time since R&D expenditures were minimal and the cost to manufacture was considerably reduced. By 1990, most of the 8-bit systems had stopped production. Apple still had educational contracts to push out the IIe and Commodore milked the shrinking cheap market until the Commodore went out of the business.
 
The Nintendo NES and Gameboy both carried on being produced throughout the 1990s
The BBC Acorn was apparently discontinued in 1994

As krebisfan said however, circa 1990 seems to be the time everyone was excited about 16-Bit and 8-bit was seen as old hat. By the mid '90s 8-bit was already seen as retro.
 
The 8-bit era ended when the first 16 and 32 bit machines came on the market in the late 70s. :confused:

Or, when C64 or //e production (finally) stopped?
 
KC9UDX said:
The 8-bit era ended when the first 16 and 32 bit machines came on the market in the late 70s. :confused:

Or, when C64 or //e production (finally) stopped?
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Apple II and Atari 8-bit computer production ended in 1993; the Tandy Color Computer 3 lasted until 1992. Commodore was trying to kill off the C64 as early as 1986, but continued high demand kept it going. Depending on which source you believe, C64 production ended in 1992, 1993, or when Commodore itself went out of business in 1994.

Some unconfirmed sources claim the Tandy TRS-80 Model 4D was available by special order as late as 1994.
 
punchy71 said:
I was just wondering when most people stopped using their 8-bit personal computers in favor of the next generation of machines. I'm just trying to get a general idea of when the hey-day of the 8-bit era ended.
Click to expand...

For me personally it was around 1990. I used a C64 from 1984 on, and had an 8088-based PC in 1988.
Around 1990 I got a 386SX machine and later an Amiga.
 
punchy71 said:
Hello,
I was just wondering when most people stopped using their 8-bit personal computers in favor of the next generation of machines. I'm just trying to get a general idea of when the hey-day of the 8-bit era ended. I have a rough idea of when it began but no clue when it actually ended. Can I use the last date of when the last mainstream 8-bit machine rolled off the assembly line or should I assume that it continued on for a few more years after that date? And if so, when?
Thank you
Click to expand...

I can't remember when I started using a C64 that my mother had bought me for Christmas but I do remember getting a Zenith Z-248 286 PC in the fall of 96.
 
I used Apple ][s until I bought a C64C in 1985 or 1986.
The C64 was replaced with an 80386 based AT clone in 1991 or 1992.
I went back to using the C64 in 1993 or 1994. In 1994 or 1995 I started using XTs. The C64 stopped working around this time.
I worked my way back up to an 80386 machine, and when Windows 95 came out I acquired an Amiga 500 and used various Amigas up until a few years ago when my fully expanded A3000 gave up the ghost (actually the CSPPC quit). I've been using C64s since then.
 
I'm not sure how valid my opinion is because I never really used an 8-bit micro as a "real" computer, only as a target system. Except for the summer of 1981 using a Motorola EXORcisor running MDOS from 8" floppies as a development system... The first useful computer that I actually owned was a used PDP-11/73 circa 1986.

I would say that despite the eight-bit data bus, the 8088 is architecturally 16 bits, or at least 15-1/2 :) . To me, the 8080/Z80, 6502, 6800, 6809, etc. based machines are the true 8-bit systems. Especially the ones that had to get it all done in one 64K (or less) address space (i.e. no bank switching or MMU).
 
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Chuck(G) said:
I find the question of "when did the 16 bit era end" somewhat more interesting.
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It depends if you consider the 386SX and its derivatives (386SLC, 486SLC, 486SRX, 486SXLC, etc.) to be a 16-bit processor or not, as well as the various 680x0 machines that were limited to a 16-bit data bus.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I find the question of "when did the 16 bit era end" somewhat more interesting.
Click to expand...

OK. I have not owned a 16-bit computer since I got rid of my PDP-11/73 in 1999. But I hadn't really done anything with it since about 1990 or '91.

I booted DOS the other night from a floppy emulator to run a diagnostic program on a 32-bit 486 machine. Was that a continuation of the 16-bit era or not?
 
Uniballer said:
OK. I have not owned a 16-bit computer since I got rid of my PDP-11/73 in 1999. But I hadn't really done anything with it since about 1990 or '91.

I booted DOS the other night from a floppy emulator to run a diagnostic program on a 32-bit 486 machine. Was that a continuation of the 16-bit era or not?
Click to expand...
So, why are you even here? This *is* a vintage computer forum. :)
 
vwestlife said:
It depends if you consider the 386SX and its derivatives (386SLC, 486SLC, 486SRX, 486SXLC, etc.) to be a 16-bit processor or not, as well as the various 680x0 machines that were limited to a 16-bit data bus.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's about the CPU really.
It's more about the chipset that surrounds it.
8088-based PCs were clearly considered 8-bit PCs back in the day, even though the CPU had a 16-bit instructionset. The data bus and chipset were 8-bit, and its capabilities lined up with other 8-bit machines of the era as well.

Likewise a 386SX has about the same performance as a 286 system overall, and many 386SX machines were actually built around a 286 chipset.
So I guess they'd qualify as a 16-bit system.

68000-based machines were also generally considered 16-bit, despite the CPU having a 32-bit instructionset. The data bus was 16-bit, as was the supporting chipset, and hence the performance and capabilities of the machine were in that ballpark.

So, for me I'd say the 16-bit era ended more or less around 1993-1994, when 386DX and 486 machines became mainstream... and likewise the 680x0-world moved to full 32-bit CPUs and chipsets, or even PowerPC or other 'true' 32-bit architectures.
 
Stone said:
So, why are you even here? This *is* a vintage computer forum. :)
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I guess I must just be lost :tongue1: .

Is this like how some antique furniture people disqualify anything after about 1850 as probably made using power tools, even though other people say it just has to be 100 years old ;)?

Actually, I happen to think that some 32-bit computers qualify as vintage, and I can't remember ever owning a 16-bit PC (my first computer using PC hardware was a 386 running UNIX, although I did dabble with Macs and Windows PCs in the early '90s). The 80386 was out in 1985 (30 years ago), and the 486 was out in 1989 (26 years ago), so I think they ought to qualify as "vintage" now..
 
Ah, the "what's 8" and "what's 16" bit issue.

I've classified the 8088 as an 8-bit CPU and gotten beaten down for it, with people arguing that only the BIU is 8-bit in an otherwise 16-bit CPU. And indeed, some 16-bit processors with 16-bit buses have been successfully interfaced to 8 bit buses. So, you'd have to go with what--the size of the ALU? The RCA CDP1802 had a bit-serial ALU, but I don't anyone would call it a 1-bit chip. Register size? Well, the 8080 has 16-bit (non-divisible) PC and stack registers, in addition to being able to do operations on register pairs, but I'm not going to call it a 16-bit machine. What about the non-von Neumann MCUs with different instruction and data word widths?

Beats me.
 
Chuck and others have taken the technical aspect of the question but from a marketing point of view (and the public's perception) I'd say the 8-bit era ended on 12th August 1981 - the day the IBM PC was announced.
 
I suppose it also depends upon what market segment also. Bill Morrow, for example, was actively selling his rigs into the business market quite some time after 1981.

On the other hand, I'd venture that Lotus 1-2-3 ended the financial interest in anything 8-bit.
 
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