Ferranti F100-L

An 8-bit processor, with 16-bit addressing, but which could

only access 32K of memory (1-bit for indirection). The

Ferranti F100-L was designed by a British company for the

British Military.

The unique feature of the F100-L was that it had a complete

control bus available for a coprocessor. Any instruction

the F100-L couldn't decode was sent directly to the

coprocessor for processing. Applications for coprocessors at

the time were limited, but the design is still used in modern

processors, such as the National Semiconductor 320xx

series.

(1994-11-17)