Re: review of Carte Blanche?

["Charlie" <charlieDOTd@verEYEzon.net>]

"rich12345" <aiiadict@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:60be30d3-663a-454a-8df2-dec1bcc62aa5@l12g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
> There were 50 produced according to applelogic.org
>
> Is anyone doing any HDL projects?

I don't know if you'd call it a project but I've been trying to get
the Carte Blanche to be a little more compatible with a ROM 01 Apple
IIgs (it was made for an Apple //e and there are a few quirks when
using it on a GS).  Actually this is more of an excuse for me to
learn about FPGAs and Verilog than a project (I knew nothing about
either before I bought a Carte Blanche card).

>
> Opinions, reviews of people who purchased them?

It is my opinion from what Steve and Alex have written here that the
main purpose of the Carte Blanche card is to spur development of
hardware projects for the Apple IIs.  Sort of, if you think it would
be nice to have "hardware X" work on your apple II use the Carte
Blanche to make it happen by "rolling your own".  If this is indeed
the intention then the Carte Blanche comes through with flying
colors.  I find it to be easy to program and although I'm no
hardware expert it seems to be very well made.  I've had a lot of
fun with it so for me it was worth the money and then some.

If you bought a Carte Blanche card for the included (already coded
in the JAT 01 bitstream file) functions then its more of a mixed
bag.  Keep in mind that I've been running the Carte Blanche on a ROM
01 GS nearly all the time so the following may or may not be true if
you are using the Carte Blanche on an Apple //e:

1. The built in disk controller loads *.nib images from the SD card
without a problem for me.

2. There are some quirks in the menu for selecting images and the
images are "Read Only".

3. I know nothing about the Z80 card functionality so I'll leave
that for someone else.

4. The VGA graphics are clear and stable on my LCD monitor.  As Alex
has mentioned there is no Double Hires mode, GS graphics modes or
mousetext.  Aside from that I have found problems with how some of
the remaining Apple II graphics modes are represented.  (These
problems and the missing modes are what I've been working on.)

Charlie