using an FPGA to emulate a vintage computer

Al Kossow <aek_at_bitsavers.org> writes:

Reviving early computing dinosaurs from the surviving DNA is
difficult.

That's a line that deserves to be put above the entrance to a
computer museum.

In article <1bd40ftplw....@snowball.wb.pfeifferfamily.net>,

pfeif...@cs.nmsu.edu (Joe Pfeiffer) writes:
Al Kossow <a...@bitsavers.org> writes:

Reviving early computing dinosaurs from the surviving DNA is
difficult.

That's a line that deserves to be put above the entrance to a
computer museum.

"It's a Unix system!  I know this!"  -- Jurassic Park

--
/~\  cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored.  Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

In comp.arch.fpga Anne& Lynn Wheeler<lynn_at_garlic.com> wrote:
(snip)

in the early 80s los gatos did custom hardware for chip logic simulation
(LSM ... "losgatos state machine" ... then "logic simulation machine"
for publication) ... dozen plus rack boxes ... ran 50,000 times faster
faster than logic simulation in software on 3033

I remember when I first started working with computers I had a
book from our library about ECAP, IBM's Electronic Circuit
Analysis Program. I never saw or used the actual program,
and haven't heard about it since. I wonder where it went...

-- glen

I try to keep a reasonably updated list of such projects at

http://www.merlintec.com:8080/hardware/31

Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I
Yes, pdp8

On Feb 8, 7:05 am, Gregory Estrade wrote:
You can add those too :
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/12/05/208-oric-in-a-fpga-continued
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/03/19/200-thomson-mo5-in-a-fpga
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/01/31/198-hector-hrx-in-a-fpga

Someday, I will set up a dedicated page for all these projects :)

Great! This subject really needs a whole wiki to itself rather than
just a page at a hard to remember address. This is on my "to do" list,
but it will be a while before I get to it.

-- Jecel

In article <1bd40ftplw.fsf_at_snowball.wb.pfeifferfamily.net>,
pfeiffer_at_cs.nmsu.edu (Joe Pfeiffer) writes:

Al Kossow <aek_at_bitsavers.org> writes:

Reviving early computing dinosaurs from the surviving DNA is
difficult.
That's a line that deserves to be put above the entrance to a
computer museum.

"It's a Unix system! I know this!" -- Jurassic Park

Jecel wrote:
On Feb 8, 7:05 am, Gregory Estrade wrote:
You can add those too :
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/12/05/208-oric-in-a-fpga-continued
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/03/19/200-thomson-mo5-in-a-fpga
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/01/31/198-hector-hrx-in-a-fpga

Someday, I will set up a dedicated page for all these projects :)

Great! This subject really needs a whole wiki to itself rather than
just a page at a hard to remember address. This is on my "to do" list,
but it will be a while before I get to it.

-- Jecel

"I have discovered a truly wonderful proof of this, but the margin
is too narrow to hold it." -- Pierre de Fermat

Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I
was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and
compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't
even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect.

Eric Chomko wrote:
Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I
Yes, pdp8 :-)

But no front panel yet. Just a CPU with BRAM memory and teletype. Passed
the CPU maindecs.

grin> What do you use for papertapes? We used to make a "tray"

Þann 05/02/2010 18:19, Eric Chomko skrifaði:

Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I
was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and
compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't
even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect.

There are loads of such projects out there, even a commercial one called
C-One "the reconfigurable computer", here:http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one/

In article <hksqmd$arq$1_at_news.eternal-september.org>,
Charles Richmond <frizzle_at_tx.rr.com> wrote:

Jecel wrote:
On Feb 8, 7:05 am, Gregory Estrade wrote:
You can add those too :
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/12/05/208-oric-in-a-fpga-continued
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/03/19/200-thomson-mo5-in-a-fpga
http://torlus.com/index.php?2007/01/31/198-hector-hrx-in-a-fpga

Someday, I will set up a dedicated page for all these projects
Great! This subject really needs a whole wiki to itself rather than
just a page at a hard to remember address. This is on my "to do" list,
but it will be a while before I get to it.

-- Jecel
"I have discovered a truly wonderful proof of this, but the margin
is too narrow to hold it." -- Pierre de Fermat

If only someone had provided him with some butter.

Charlie Gibbs wrote:
In article <1bd40ftplw.fsf_at_snowball.wb.pfeifferfamily.net>,
pfeiffer_at_cs.nmsu.edu (Joe Pfeiffer) writes:

Al Kossow <aek_at_bitsavers.org> writes:

Reviving early computing dinosaurs from the surviving DNA is
difficult.
That's a line that deserves to be put above the entrance to a
computer museum.

"It's a Unix system! I know this!" -- Jurassic Park


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFUlAQZB9Ng

On Feb 10, 2:55 am, Olafur Gunnlaugsson<o...@audiotools.com> wrote:
Þann 05/02/2010 18:19, Eric Chomko skrifaði:

Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I
was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and
compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't
even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect.

There are loads of such projects out there, even a commercial one called
C-One "the reconfigurable computer", here:http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one/

It is a great effort but last time I checked it was a bit pricey ~$300
for a basic system.

Just my opinion but some of the other ways of doing it will be more
successful if volume is the sole criteria. For instance all those
MP3/4 type players seem to use some variation of Rockchip or Sunplus
'System on a Chip.' In the Sunplus case it has ~160 mHz ARM processor
as the core. Currently they only emulate NES or GB, type of old system
but they certainly have the processing power and enough I/O sans
keyboard to do most 8 bit and 16 bit computers. Build quality is a
problem of course but you can pick a 4 gig system with LCD screen for
about $50.

Rick

On Feb 10, 2:55 am, Olafur Gunnlaugsson <o...@audiotools.com> wrote:
Þann 05/02/2010 18:19, Eric Chomko skrifaði:

Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I
was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and
compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't
even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect.
There are loads of such projects out there, even a commercial one called
C-One "the reconfigurable computer", here:http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one/

It is a great effort but last time I checked it was a bit pricey ~$300
for a basic system.

Just out of curiosity, how old are you? Giving the decade is OK.