John Smith wrote:
The 56K USRobotics Courier External modem was the prime example of such
a hardware modem and contained its own processor and it was identical (I
think) to the processor used in the first IBM computers (second
generation actually, first generation used the 8086;s)--intel 80186's?

You are probably thinking of the 8088 (8-bit bus) used
in the low-end version of the first IBM PC. But the
"first IBM computers" were not solid-state. :-) Back
in the 50's, the IBM-650 computers used dual triodes
with a magnetic drum as the memory. The logic was
bi-quinary, somewhat like an abacus.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com