This week's screwy idea From: Cameron Kaiser Reply to: Cameron Kaiser Date: 01 Dec 1998 09:50:08 PST Organization: Concentric Internet Services Since wish lists for hardware are the rage, here's mine (was thinking about it last night). The biggest impetus to building new Commodores is the fact that, except for the ROM/RAM and maybe CIAs, none of the components are off the shelf. Just try to find a 6510, SID, VIC2 or PLA any more that you didn't cannibalise out of a moribund unit, let alone the HMOS versions. "What I was thinking" was a device along these lines: * 65816 core (since people are all for 16-bits) * Display and audio: taking a tip from the 2600, why not get another 6502 to handle them? A 6502 that had nothing else to do could easily track the raster and do a simple display. The 2600 did it from day one with a TIA, and while I don't know how difficult this would be, it's conceivable it might drive a VGA card ... might it? Another 6502 could be dedicated to audio, sending pulses to a speaker. Nothing on the SID, but certainly functional, and both would take the strain off the 65816. * Shared RAM between the (multiple) 6502s and the 65816 The only issue is the MMU for bank switching, but the SCPU has something like that already, doesn't it? Just this week's screwy idea. -- Cameron Kaiser * cdkaiser.cris@com * powered by eight bits * operating on faith -- supporting the Commodore 64/128: http://computerworkshops.home.ml.org/ -- head moderator comp.binaries.cbm * cbm special forces unit $ea31 (tincsf) personal page http://calvin.ptloma.edu/~spectre/ * "when in doubt, take a pawn"