No, it's not the Alpha or some relatively late design that interests me, but,
rather, the old solid 8's or 11's. Emanuel once told me there are a couple of
makers of PDP-11 look-alikes that work well enough to be of interest. Like the
old 8-bitters, there are plenty of things these 16-bitters did perfectly well
that still need to be done. If the software exists, it's certainly worthwhile
to build hardware to execute it.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "ajp166" <ajp166_at_bellatlantic.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: Allison: 2910c version of z80 and FPGAs - a little O/T
> From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
>
>
> >There's been so much unwarranted (IMHO) skepticism about the ability to
> transfer
> >a solid DEC CPU design into CPLD/FPGA that I'd really like to see
> someone try
> >it. The DEC folks didn't often do the wierd things that make circuits
> act
>
>
> There are several PDP-8s out there on FPGAs and there is nothing to say
> others would not be doable save for maybe enough gates (CPLDs) to do the job.
>
> >fix the older designs so they'd work fine in current technology, and
> probably
> >MUCH faster. I'm not interested in DEC stuff myself, but the fact that
> there
>
>
> Potential for speed is definately there using newer technology.
>
> >are several manufacturers making logical equivalents of the DEC CPU's
> today
>
>
> Well most of them are doing it from DEC mask sets under license. I
> presume
> you mean Alpha and PDP-11 (11/93 class).
>
> >yield 150), you'll get it done. Once the design is entered, simulated,
> >synthesized, simulated and tested as implemented, there's room for
> fixes. The
>
>
> If you dont simulate and test the sim you will likely fail.
>
> Allison
>
>
Received on Sun May 06 2001 - 14:05:51 BST