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Re: Accelerator / VGA Graphics card



Sheldon Simms wrote:
On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 19:54:34 -0400, Charlie wrote:


"Wayne Stewart" <waynes@telus.dotnet> wrote in message
news:K%Dlb.1279$SJ1.826@edtnps84...


Exegete wrote:


Which is a good argument for a PowerPC based accelerator, as there is
already Bernie II the Rescue, which emulates ALL the IIgs in software.
Surely doing just the 65816 should be easy.

Roy

I don't think it'd be a lot easier, there's emulaters for PCs too.
Personally I like the idea of a G3 based card because so many G3 0wners
upgraded their computers that you can get the chips for next to nothing
or for free if youhappen to know a lot of Mac owners. There's likely an
equivalent out of date PC processor.

Could these chips run with the power restrictions of an Apple II?


No. And in fact, the Pentium M may be a problem as well. Some
Pentium M configurations are quite low power, but seem to
require active cooling anyway.

A Transmeta Efficieon can supposedly operate with only passive
cooling, which indicates even lower power requirements.

I can't see any way a PowerPC of any kind fits the requirements.

Have you thought about using something ARM-based, like the newer Intel xScale chips? I was reading up on the PXA255 tonight after spotting this thread, and they include quite a few goodies that could be useful (like integrated RAM interface, AC97 support, PCMCIA/CF interface and an LCD controller). Runs at up to 400 MHz and only pulls 2.6 watts of power worst-case.

They have a product brief up at http://developer.intel.com/design/pca/prodbref/252780.htm if you're interested.

-lee