Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you

[Stephen Shaw <xstephenx@apple2.org.za>]

On Mon, 30 Jul 2001 04:25:26 +0000, TJ Edmister wrote:

>> On 18 Jul 2001 18:41:16 GMT, Byron Desnoyers Winmill wrote:
>>
>> > helgetu (h.schaefer@tu-bs.de) wrote:
>> >: What might be the purpose of this $300 machine?
>> >
>> > It was originally targeted for computer hobbiests.  Given the groups we
are
>> > posting to, it would share some of the characteristics of the 8 and 16 bit
>> > machines of the 80's, or would suit the tastes of the current users of
>> > these machines.
>> >
>> > I was thinking of something easy enough for an amateur to understand the
>> > electronics, and low level programmaming of the device.  (My view is that
>> > modern machines are too complex and too poorly documented to fit this
>> > market.)
>> >
>
> This right here is what I am thinking. A lot of other posts in this thread
> have talked about PC components. Come on people! PCs are no fun! We all
> like our obsolete computers (whether you consider them obsolete or not, I
> personally couldn't find anything useful to do on my Atari if I tried)
> right? We just want something a little more powerful so we can do all the
> things we need to do and throw out those stupid PCs which are just a bunch
> of parts sloppily thrown together. Even if there were an OS for PC that we
> liked it wouldn't matter much because PC hardware just sucks. Maybe you
> don't agree but this is certainly my opinion. I'm an assembly language
> person and I find C++ (the language that "everyone" uses now) to be
> completely unnatural. It isn't practical to program PCs in assembler
> because there is so much different hardware (can't find programming info
> for most of it either) and because most of it looks like it was designed by
> crazy people.
>
> Sooo... I use my PCs for internet access, for games (just emulators and
> Doom network games actually), for playing music, the occasional school
> assignment, and for programming (for non-PC systems of course, like the
> Turbo Grafx 16 for which I've written half of an RPG in Hu6280 (like a
> 6502) assembly). One of the many things I like about my Atari is the fact
> the motherboard is not too dense, I can go in and unsolder stuff and solder
> other stuff on. There is no way to do that with a PC motherboard (at least
> on anything newer than a 286) because of all those tiny little pins on the
> chips and the four-layer construction. Taking all of this into account, my
> system would look like this:
>
> 1. nice, simple CPU (since I'm a fan of the 6502 I'd use one of those great
> Western Design Center 65816's. one of those eZ80s that I've heard about
> would be good I guess. 80x86 chips are out of the question of course), with
> a clock speed in the double digits (decimal digits, not hex :))
>
> 2. 2 MB or so of RAM would be fine for what I'm doing
>
> 3. A cool video chip like old computers had, that means something other
> than just a frame buffer and a DAC, something with sprites and layers and
> maybe polygons. I would like something with 256 colors at 640x480  (the
> V9990 chip used in the 3DO would be great, the chips from the later MSX
> computers would be OK)
>
> 4. A likewise sound chip, something with 16-bit stereo PCM but also with
> some good old FM channels or square waves or something
>
> 5. an EIDE interface

There is a FREE IDE interface for the Apple II being planned on
comp.sys.apple2. It uses 7 74 series chips in the prototype. The prototype
works. People are now trying to improve it to automatically recognise tracks,
sectors, heads etc. So the rationale is sound for a niche computer.

>
> 6. built-in ethernet
>
> 7. some REAL joystick ports (the kind where you read a register and each
> button is represented by a bit)
>
> 8. expansion slots
>
> 9. An OS which isn't bloated and slow, which includes a command line
> interface, and which isn't designed to protect idiot users from themselves
>
> Perhaps within the next year or two, when I have some money and some time,
> I'll build something out of a 65816 development board. Then again, I might
> spend all my money on mods/paint for my BMW (which is around the same age
> as my Atari 8-bitter of course).
>
> ---
> http://www.geocities.com/six_five_o_two/index.htm
> manual transmissions and assembly language - the most fun, the best control
> JMP ($FFFE)

-- 
All extremists should be taken out and shot!