Re: Accelerator / VGA Graphics card

[salfter@salfter.dyndns.org (Scott Alfter)]

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In article <p143cdkxkz5.fsf@panini.cling.gu.se>,
MagerValp  <MagerValp@cling.gu.se> wrote:
>>>>>> "SS" == Sheldon Simms <sheldonsimms@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>SS> If there were some interested person(s) in the Apple II community
>SS> capable of laying out this board, it could become a reality.
>
>You do realize that you're talking about 3 or 4-layer PCBs and 478 pin
>chips here, right? It's not exactly the kind of stuff you build at
>home.
>
>A used iMac or small form factor PC is cheaper and works better, and
>you don't have to do everything from scratch.

All that is true, but I suspect that somebody's looking for a challenge.  It
would be interesting to see if somebody could pull it off.

As for me, I'm just getting started on a simple 6502-based controller for my
beer fridges.  I have a IIe doing the job for one fridge right now...could
tweak the software a bit to have it control more than one at a time, but
some custom hardware would take less space.  Porting the software shouldn't
be too difficult...the bits that are already in assembly language would only
need minor tweaks, and the bits that are in BASIC are mostly straightforward
stuff that implements the UI (which will need replacement anyway) and some
higher-level functionality (which I just haven't bothered rewriting in
assembly yet).  16K of ROM (maybe more, maybe less), 8K of RAM, an LCD, some
buttons, and an interface to some temperature sensors and relay controllers
should do the job.  Some EEPROM to maintain settings through a power outage
would be nice...though since I'm using SRAM, maybe a battery on that would
be sufficient.

(Anyone know of a source for 6502s?  I thought I had one on hand from
upgrading the IIe to an enhanced model, but that seems to have gone missing. 
I have a "Sally" CPU that I salvaged from an Atari 5200...the pinout is
slightly different, but it's mostly 6502-compatible.  I could design a board
to work with both, but if I end up building more than one, I'd need more
processors and I'd rather not "kill" Apple IIs to get them.)

  _/_   Scott Alfter (address in header doesn't receive mail)
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(IIGS(  http://alfter.us/           Top-posting!
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