Date   : Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:22:05 +0100
From   : kortink@... (John Kortink)
Subject: BBC FPGA Boots to BASIC... almost...

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:40:57 +1100, Mark McDougall wrote:

>John Kortink wrote:
>
>>> You may have heard of the C-One computer - 
>> I'm not sure if you could call it a 'commercial' product,
>> but hey. The problem with the C-One is it's way behind by
>> now, in terms of FPGA capacity.
>
>Yes, the 1K100+1K30 is woefully inadequate

Putting it mildly. I've one or two very cheap development
boards that are much, much more powerful than that. I
suppose the one you're using is too.

> - the FPGA64 project has the 
>1K100 completely maxed-out... the other problem is the fact that the 
>mainboard has a few design problems.

And then there's the documentation. Or rather lack of it.
That killed the whole idea of doing something with it, at
least it did for me.

>>> And causing a lot of interest is a recent release of Minimig (Amiga 500) 
>> I read somewhere it was being picked up by a commercial
>> party. I suppose that should give it some speed in the
>> right direction.
>
>Interesting, I hadn't heard that. Hopefully they'll keep it open-source like 
>the One-Chip MSX...

The article I read didn't mention it, but I just found a
link :

http://www.acube-systems.biz/eng/index.php

Still, how genuine it all is remains to be seen. Perhaps
they're just testing the water.

>> The idea has been discussed before on this mailing list. ;-)
>> More of a selection of 'drool' scenarios, really.
>
>No doubt, like the other lists... the frustrating part is that it's all 
>completely doable - right now - it's just not commercially viable... :(

It probably would be if the original hardware wasn't
so incredibly available and therefore cheap. At least
BBCs can be picked up for something close to the cost
of the relevant postage.

Will be different if we wait 10 years, I suppose. ;-)


John Kortink

-- 

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