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Re: What specs would your Apple ][ clone have today?
David Schmenk wrote:
> sicklittlemonkey wrote:
-snip-
> Actually, PalmApple was a port of YAE. It sort of worked, but took
> about 30 minutes to boot ProDOS. Yours truly wrote Appalm (a much more
> clever name that PalmApple, I thought) in 68000 assembly and a little C.
> The only thing used from YAE was the disk nibblezation and arm stepping
> logic.
Oh I see. I misunderstood the lineage. From what I read I thought that
Appalm was a later iteration of PalmApple.
You wrote that? Very nice. Mind you I do tend to make a backup of my palm
before I use it. It has a tendency to explode on my T3, but the T3 is great
for upsetting some programs anyway.
>
> Now this is where I think an Apple II clone would get interesting. My
> Treo 700 runs Appalm close to native speed of a real Apple II. Appalm
> has no speed regulation and just runs flat out. So here is an XScale at
> 312 MHz, emulating a 68000, emulating a 6502. At about the right speed.
Well, I guess you could always rewrite the core in ARM assembly. Or just do
the "easy" thing and compile a C based 6502 core as an ARMlet. That would
probably give a massive performance boost, removing the 68k middleman.
> Note: there are some bugs in the 68000 emulation, as one of the
> enhanced 65c02 instructions doesn't work on my Treo, but fine on my
> 68000 based Clie.
So it wasn't just my imagination. Some things do seem a little off
sometimes, and crashes occur which wouldn't on one of my 68k based units.
>
> Michael said something awhile ago that really rang true. To paraphrase,
> he said the Apple II was the last of the hobby computers to ship. Being
> a hobby computer is what made it special.
>
> So, if you were going to make an Apple II clone, clone the hobby aspect
> of it, not just the hardware implementation. My recommendation would be
> to build a computer around an ARM core. Nothing like a real 6502 or,
> heaven forbid, a 65816 (which I *really* dislike). However, build 1 MHz
> Apple II compatible slots, game port, keyboard connectors so that it
> will fit in a II or IIe case. Of course VGA, ethernet, USB, IDE, and
> whatever current peripherals of choice would have to be included. Now
> you have a computer capable of running Linux (the hobby geek OS of
> choice) and a cycle accurate emulator. You could even put an emulator
> in boot ROM so it comes up as an Apple II. You could easily emulate an
> Apple III as well. Heck, I'd even offer to write the emulation in ARM
> assembly. Imagine a 200 MHz Apple II.
I can't help thinking of an Archimedes. They were ARM based. Speaking of
which...
I have to write an email.
Tristan.
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