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Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you choose?
- Subject: Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you choose?
- From: Pekka \"Pihti\" Takala <pekka.takala@pp.inet.fi>
- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 07:15:02 +0300
- Newsgroups: alt.amiga, comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, comp.sys.amstrad.8bit, comp.sys.apple2, comp.sys.atari.8bit, comp.sys.atari.advocacy, comp.sys.atari.st, comp.sys.cbm, comp.sys.sinclair
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"T.J.T van Kooten" wrote:
>
> For the sake of argument let's suppose you could design a next generation
> $300 homecomputer. The goal is to make a userfriendly machine for general
> use and for hobbyists. How would such a system look?
It should be small and cost-effecient. $300 is WAY too much. let's say
$150 is quite affordable. Also it should be able to emulate numerous of
those old home machines and the emulation be changed in software.
Nowadays it is possible to make chips by programming them.
> CPU? (P.S Intel and AMD are out, far too expensive and powerhungry for this
> type of thing, you should be looking at the $20-35 level)
> As OS? (Linux is a dead giveaway, but there also other OS's out there)
> Build in programming language? (please choose anything but Basic!)
> Amount of memory? (RAM and ROM)
> Graphic and Sound?
> Network capabilities? (internet capable)
> Plug in capabilities (remember you're making it as cheap as possible so
> modems, CD-Roms, HD's are all extras)
> Video (TV? or Monitor?)
Cpu would be Western Desing Center 65816 and a z280 or a z380. Both
would share the same memory, and there would be 16 megabytes of ram
memory and bankable one megabyte of video memory (so that it can be
mapped to either cpu's memory area). Also they could run their code
simultaneously so that when the machine is emulating a 65xx machine, the
z380 emulates the old chips in those systems while the 65816 runs the
code. Also, when a z80 machine is emulated, the 65816 takes care of
chipemulation. Also some of the memory would be relocatable in software
so that the old chips, roms and so on can be easily emulated. The clock
speed of both cpus should also be changable in software.
The programming language would be c++ or c or assembler. Also basic
would be considerable. Only needed rom would be the code starter roms
for both cpu's and a boot rom. The rest could be loaded from an ordinary
ide hard disk drive. A dvd-rom would also be a good there; it can store
much information and can possibly be used to watch dvd. Also if it is
made bootable it would be fine.
As a graphic solution a svga driver chip would be superior. As a sound
chip a creative sb16 chip would be fine. It has fm and 16 bit stereo
dsp. A ne2k compatible rtl8019 would be fine for networks.
>
> Remember that the RETAIL price should be $300, so think in wholesale prices.
> The real costs should below $200 or even below the $150 level. You may
> presume that a million units would be manufactured so take volume discounts
> for components into account
>
> Let's see what sort of systems people come up with.
--
*Pekka "Pihti" Takala *pekka.takala@pp.inet.fi
*asm sw developer *home: +358-6-8311341
*cellular: +358-40-5670465