Michael J. Mahon wrote:
Even if no development is done and one uses a downloaded new configuration it is likely to be a PC/Mac/whatever used for the downloading. So the same logic applies.Perhaps I'm unusual, but I doubt it--My Apple //e is in a different room from my PC, and I like it that way! I use CiderPress with HD ProDOS floppies and CF cards to move files and volumes back and forth between the PC and the Apple II conveniently.
Then putting a file on an MMC/SD card and inserting this card into the CB in the other room should feel about the same :)
That's why I've expressed so much interest in a purely Apple II-based method of reconfiguring the Carte Blanche. I expect to be loading pre-existing configurations for use at least ten times more frequently than I would be loading a newly developed configuration for trial.
While possible in principle, there is danger here. The old configuration must work to enable loading a new one. If something goes wrong you can only "unbrick" the CB by using JTAG. So unless you have a PC with a printer port and a $12 cable or a PC with a USB port and a $300 cable I wouldn't try reconfiguring CB too often.
Anyway it's a done deal now. If there is ever another rev of the CB it may be a good idea to add a tiny hard microcontroller that could handle the FPGA programming.
And for most of those configuration loads, I won't have a PC tethered to my Apple II--or at least that's what I would much prefer.
As I said you can put several configurations on an SD card once and use Apple standalone (or rather the CB almost standalone) to re-flash.
I think of the Carte Blanche as a "chameleon card" that can be reconfigured quickly to become something else I need at the moment...
Of course that's its main raison d��tre. -Alex.