>>If I remember correctly, the expansion interface was required for the Model I for adding past 16K that the main unit (basically keyboard where the CPU was located) could hold, and was also required if you wanted to hook up peripherals (e.g. diskette drive, printer, modem, etc.). Also since the hardware didn't have provision for bankswitching, there wasn't a way to expand beyond 48K RAM (the first 16K was for ROM code and memory-mapped hardware).

Yep, that's what I remember too. The Amstrad had bankswitching to add another 64K RAM.

>>It also happens to be that on a project involving porting TRS-80 code to the IBM-PC is where I'd encountered problem similar to the Y2K problem -- TRSDOS wouldn't handle take dates beyond 1984 (which was one of the big reasons why the move from TRS-80 to IBM-PC was done).

That I did not remember. Might turn it on and see what I can remember! Ready> prompt... Hmm, what now? ;-)

>>I do remember back when I got a PalmOS device for about $200 and realized that from computing ability and memory installed, it wasn't different from the 486-based PC that I bought back in 1991 for $2000.

Many of our phones are more powerful than the first PCs we used to develop FP2.x apps. Which is why I'm puzzled at the lack of a cross platform VFP analog, but don't get me started...