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Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you choose?
- Subject: Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you choose?
- From: "Marc Walters" <marc@classworks.com.au>
- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 17:17:23 +1000
- Newsgroups: alt.amiga, comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, comp.sys.amstrad.8bit, comp.sys.apple2, comp.sys.atari.8bit, comp.sys.atari.advocacy, comp.sys.atari.st, comp.sys.cbm, comp.sys.sinclair
- Organization: Pacific Internet (Australia)
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"T.J.T van Kooten" <thomas@-nospam-worldonline.nl> wrote in message
news:9ikva3$ple$1@nereid.worldonline.nl...
> For the sake of argument let's suppose you could design a next
generation
> $300 homecomputer. The goal is to make a userfriendly machine for
general
> use and for hobbyists. How would such a system look?
(with apologies for the huge cut and past of one of my previous posts)
CMD made an attempt with GUS - 3 x 65816 at 20Mhz, SCPU 128
architecture and some other neat ideas. The arrival of cheap PCs
killed the project. The problem with cheap PCs is that their
first-time owners tend to treat it as an appliance, and paying
expensive bills to get problems fixed, or to purchase entirely
unnecessary application software for more than the initial purchase
price of the box.
One of my favourite "toys" was an old Dick Smith (Funway?) Electronics
Learning Kit. It was a board with springs (to join the hookup wire),
components, and project sheets. Simple, fun, and educational.
Especially since there was no need for that ten-year old to to wield a
dangerous soldering iron and play with mains electricity. Which leads
nicely into...
If the C64 was going to be ressurected in a modern form, it would have
to be something entirely different from a PC, and aimed at an entirely
different market. A "learning" or "hobby" computer. Like "Mecchano"
and IIRC "Lego Robotics".
Something that was:
a) Relatively inexpensive
b) Programmable
c) Childproof and newcomputerowner-proof
d) Expandable
What I'm thinking of is a SCPU-driven 64 in a PC mini tower, with real
O/S that sits over the C64 BASIC/KERNAL package and provides a
protected environment for a new BASIC or PASCAL with strong visual and
audio support. A component system, similar to Borland's "Delphi" would
be really nice.
The O/S would be scaleable -
* A "Childrens' Mode" which allows a subset of the programming
languages and lots of presets for stuff like printer output,
menu-driven educational titles, etc (in ROM?). Perhaps a
point-and-click programming language with built-in music to make
"games" similar to the old Commodore "babysitter" titles ala "Pinball
Construction Set".
* A "Hobby Mode", perhaps using a hard-to-get-at hardware switch which
allows access to the guts of the machine, and 64-mode, etc. A
redesigned "hobby-port", basically the User port with build-in relays
and perhaps a bay for a 9-volt battery to power plug-in (out of the
box) hardware projects.
In all, a machine that the user can get a real feeling of being in
control - no worry about viruses or crashes or constant version
updates and patches. Something parents will buy for the kids as a toy
but may (hopefully) discover than by plugging some extra stuff into
it, can do basic tasks like wordprocessing and may not be quite the
toy they thought it was.
Marc Walters
marc@objectconnections.com