mdj wrote:
I love this idea too. The only thing 'better' would be a CarteBlanche motherboard, which replaces an existing IIe board. In this case, the slots that it implements can be dedicated purely to supporting original hardware, and all new "CarteBlanche" cards can be implemented virtually.
This describes perfectly the NanoBoard with PB10 - plug-in board with Apple slot connectors. The "motherboard" is my FPGApple implemented on NB. There are 2 issues:
1. Cost. NB is rather expensive but this might change.2. Several 6502 cores exist but not a single (free) core is accurate enough to boot ProDOS without errors. One implementation uses a real 65C02 and the Xilinx FPGA is almost empty.
It would not be difficult to create a motherboard with a real 65C02, 128K of a (static) memory and logic to connect a PS2 keyboard plus asmallest and cheapest FPGA for glue logic, say S3AN - 50. Plus the most expensive part - the slot connectors.
One reason not to do it is the fact that A2e is worth about $20 on e-bay and there is no shortage yet.
I admit though, that the cost of this project makes it somewhat prohibitive compared to the card.
IMHO the great thing about the card is the possibility to implement things that either do not exist or are very rare. Like a VGA interface. Re-implementing the standard Apple 2 is definitely fun - I did it 3 times now - but doesn't look like a "product" to me.
-Alex.