Explaining microprocessors to people in 1982-83

This illustration is a composite of sketches Ken Stone and I made to attempt to explain the workings of CPUs and machine code to hobbyists back in the early 80s.

This was published in issue 10 of Talking Electronics in early 83 to go with our TEC-1 computer kit. For a few years the TEC-1 was the cheapest, most accessible way for Australian hobbyists to enter the mysterious world of computing.

Before long of course that space would be filled with consumer systems that could actually do things that were useful apart from just learning how to program.