Re: Accelerator / VGA Graphics card

["Charlie" <charlied@NOSPAMbboard.com>]

"Sheldon Simms" <sheldonsimms@yahoo.com> wrote in message
pan.2003.10.21.21.32.42.506869@yahoo.com">news:pan.2003.10.21.21.32.42.506869@yahoo.com...
>
> We've talked about this before, and I feel like it is probably futile
> to bring it up again, but I was looking around the Intel website last
> night and got to thinking again...
>
> If such a card were to be made, I think it would be important to
> control feature creep. In other words, it should accelerate Apple II
> programs, it should provide a standard graphics output, and (as a
> side effect) it would provide 8Mb or more RAM to Apple II programs.
> The card would perform no other function. No SATA, No USB, No NIC,
> and so on. This restriction is made to prevent the card from trying
> to be a PC-on-a-card, and to make it as simple as possible (given
> the primary requirements).
>
> The card would include a low-power modern CPU, graphics adapter,
> and memory. A 65816 emulation program would run on the CPU and
> emulate a 65816 at speeds of more than 20Mhz (i.e. - faster than
> any real 65816). The emulation program would also emulate all
> Apple II & IIgs video modes, in the same way an emulation program
> would do it, and provide the video output to a VGA connector on
> the back of the card.
>
> Now the reason that I decided to post about this again is that
> it seems to me that Intel has pretty much the perfect solution(*)
> for this card: The Pentium M and 855GM northbridge.
>
> These two chips combine everything necessary. The Pentium M is
> a low power P6 processor, and the 855GM has a DDR memory
> controller, and a graphics controller. As far as I can tell, these
> two chips would be the only parts needed apart from the various
> analog components and whatever logic is required to interface the
> Pentium M with the Apple II bus.

I'm not very knowledgable on the hardware/software aspects of your idea but I
do
have some questions that make me wonder if this is the way to go:

1.  Power:  Although, the Pentium M/855GM chipset is considered "low-power" the
data sheet looks to me like it's power requirements far exceeds any Apple II
power supply let alone what you can get on a slot.

Am I wrong?

2.  Cost:  A quick look on the net showed me that Pentium M chips were selling
at $230 to $495 for speeds 1.3GHz to 1.7GHz.  I assume a 900MHz chip would be
cheaper but I didn't see any for sale.  Add to that the price of 855GM chipset,
memory chips, video connector and the cost of manufacturing the board and you
have a pretty expensive card.

What is your estimate of the cost of a card like this?

3.  Emulation:  It would not be trivial to develope an emulator that runs
natively on the card.  I'm assuming you would have to create it on a PC.  Would
the emulator be in ROM?  Just testing it would  require making the card first
(or at least a proto-type).

Again, am I wrong here?  Is there already an emulator that would work?

Charlie