What aspect are you talking about that you consider to be going against the old philosophy?

The old home computers (at least the Atari) *did* provide an API to programs. There were established and documented OS "entry points" that you'd call to execute certain functions. Knowing where and when to use those entry points was as critical as the code in your program. And, as has already been mentioned, the old CPUs depended on external ICs to take care of audio, video, etc. So it seems to me there are a lot of similarities in how the old systems were designed and what we're talking about here.

In any case, I don't think we're trying to duplicate the old technology nor are we necessarily trying to duplicate a philosophy (even though that may be the end result). If the goal is to get every ounce of performance out of an 8052 then a generic 8052 "computer" capable of loading/unloading programs and driving VGA output isn't the best choice. This is more of a fun project "because we can" and to see how much we can push the 8052 to do. It's to make the system feel more less like an SBC and more like a full-blown computer. To achieve some of the flexibility that will make the 8052 seem to be more a computer than a microcontroller we obviously have to sacrifice some efficiency.

Regards,
Craig Steiner