Re: Carte Blanche Atto (CB for the IIc)

[rich12345 <aiiadict@gmail.com>]

On Apr 1, 2:57 am, Steve <srk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  These modules are
> being used in other products, so I am piggy backing off their
> production.


very cool!

>
> --> Of course the next question is the price
>
> I am targetting $170 for both boards.

that's very reasonable


>
> --> except the IIgs, of course, unless... it can be adapted to plug
> into the 65816 socket
>
> Yes. Clocking routes have been provided for the extra 65C816 pins. I
> havent got a core though.

Might be a good group project.  We have a handful of Apple II
hobbyists who know HDL, and another handful of those who know 65816
assembly.


>
> --> if some of that creative energy went into system documentation for
> the original CB.
>
> I did a ton of this for the Altium software I used to create the
> original CB, but no one used it.

I never saw this available... If I had I would have grabbed me a
*copy*


> I dont think so - the 250 lacks the internal SRAM if i recall
> correctly. No one really contemplated putting an arcade machine in
> carte blanche. The 250 can be upgraded to a 500 by simply replacing
> the FPGA chip. I may offer to do this if there is enough interest.

I think that was a bad decision (only a few 500's made)...  They
should have all been the bigger chip!

I would pay you to solder a 500 onto my board.


> So I created this little board as an experiment. An ARM
> interfaced to a IIe.(.. or II/III anything) so I can execute an apple
> II simulator inside the apple II.
>
> http://www.applelogic.org/files/ARM7+A2E.JPG
>
> Its a gumstix module (www.gumstix.com) that has its L3 to L4 front
> side bus (AHB) interfaced to the Apple IIe as if it where the 6502
> processor. With wait enabled, it operates at exactly 1.023MHz (gated
> to apples sys clock), but can be tweeked to operated at up to 30MHz
> (but things start to stop). The Processor is a 700MHZ texas
> instruments OMAP 3530 apps processor with an ARM Cortex A8 CPU.
> Although this seems just plane wrong, I wanted to start to experiment
> with applications such as KEGS or Apple Win to see if this is a better
> way to expand and add life to these great machines. Anyway, its only
> an idea at this stage - and if I did it for a reason, it wouldnt be a
> hobby. :)


You have so many neat things going on, I wish you would post more!  Do
you have a blog?  Can you tell us more about your ARM project please.
An apple II simulator in an apple II..  So are you running ARM code
that simulates the 6502??

It looks like that gumstix module has some extreme features for what
you are using it for (and if you did it for a reason, it wouldn't be a
hobby :-)...  There's enough cpu power and RAM to turn it into an
accelerator like the ZipChip


Rich