Haha ... Yes, it wasn't until I bought it and was able to play with it at home that I suddenly "got" microprocessors ... and everything fell into place.
Up until then ... I had limited time with an 8080 in the lab ... and I spent months at classes in a total fog.
So I can credit the MicroProfessor with being the catalyst for my work to this day.
Yes, that is correct ... it's just that with limited hands-on time ... for some reason I couldn't grasp the 'concept'.
After I'd had a unit at home to play with and experiment with for a while ... suddenly the penny dropped and it all became easy. From then on it was fun and I really enjoyed it. Even got good marks come exam time!
If I'm perfectly honest ... even though the documentation was pretty ordinary ... I think the light bulb went off as I was reading through and studying the notes. For some reason I thought it had to be far more complicated than it actually is.