Re: RFC : SOME IDEAS FOR THE APPLE II FPGA'ers

["mdj" <mdj.mdj@gmail.com>]

Jorge Chamorro Bieling wrote:

> And how about this: The board fits in an Apple II slot connector, but it
> can be removed and used stand-alone too because it contains a video
> output, alternative keyboard input, and maybe one slot connector "just
> in case" (most likely for a MicroDrive IDE controller).

I like the idea of fitting in a standard slot except, in terms of
complexity, it's almost equivalent to an FPGA based replacement board,
and in some ways is actually harder. For one, you have to design the
layout in such a way that it doesn't foul anything up when plugged into
a real Apple II. Secondly, you're constrained your options in terms of
acceleration, since you have to operate in terms of the real Apple II
environment to remain compatible with the bus. This means that many
potential acceleration ideas are unimplementable, and worse, you have
to accept all the compatibility restrictions that existing accelerators
have.

So, implementation complexity goes up, and the quality of the end
solution goes down. Maybe I'm underestimating the complexity of
replacing the whole board a little bit, but I think that worst case, we
end up with a far more flexible solution for commensurate effort.

Getting something operational can happen relatively quickly, and adding
mind boggling performance enhancements down the track is relatively
easy. Nobody's end goals are compromised, and virtually no extension
that any of us can dream up is made difficult/impossible. It's a
win-win

In fact, the only real 'downside' I can see to this approach is that
once such a thing exists, it pretty much destroys the 'market' for any
future, and possibly existing Apple II expansion hardware. But then,
from my perspective, this is actually a good thing, since ultimately
consolidating everything into a unified solution creates a larger
'potential' market, since people don't have to wait a potentially
endless amount of time to acquire the system they'd like, by competing
with everyone else for the precious few components that appear on ebay
each year.

I would however like to highlight that when it comes to the Apple II,
that I am in no way motivated by profit, only love, and when
considering the way anything I'd like to be a part of reaches the
supposed 'market', think "Apple ][ Reference Manual"

Matt