Tim's own version of the Catweasel/Compaticard/whatever

From: Richard Erlacher <richard_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Wed Jul 5 11:44:18 2000

What the CPLD allows is incorporation of rudimentary FDC functions into the
CPLD so the device doesn't have to be connected in parallel with an external
drive cable. That simplifies packaging and construction, and ensures that
the sampler board won't disturb the system's floppy subsystem. The circuit
wouldn't be modifiable on the fly, however, unless you consider the multiple
minutes of reprogramming time and the associated physical effort "on the
fly."

So far, I've seen no reason to make this baby reconfigurable. What do you
have in mind?

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: Eric J. Korpela <korpela_at_ellie.ssl.berkeley.edu>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: Tim's own version of the Catweasel/Compaticard/whatever


> > As Chuck pointed out, maybe the fact that this is quarter-century-old
> > technology put together with quarter-century-old construction and design
> > techniques makes it less accessible to some of the younger members
> > of this list. Maybe the way to make it more accessible to them is to
put
> > the circuitry on a CPLD, I dunno, I think it's fine as it is.
>
> I don't think that's the reason to put it in a CPLD. The reason to put
> it into a CPLD is to make the circuitry modifiable on the fly. Right now
> the design puts all of the complexity on the software side. The CPLD
> gives the possibility of moving some of that into the hardware side.
> It also gives the possibility of using different methods to read different
> formats, while retaining the possibility of reading it raw. There also
happen
> to be some of us that prefer reading schematics to reading code. :)
>
> Eric
>
>
Received on Wed Jul 05 2000 - 11:44:18 BST