Jecel wrote:
> On Feb 8, 2:42 am, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> You can add to that list:
>>
>> http://www.abc80.org/~hpa/fpga/
> 
> Thanks! This is doubly wonderful since not only do I love FPGA based
> retrocomputing but am also very interested in the history of computing
> of countries outside the better known US/UK stuff.
> 

 From the sound of the projects being done, it sounds like it's a 
challenge to use FPGA to emulate even simple instruction sets, no?

Al Kossow wrote:
> 
> Personally, I'm very interested in seeing B5500 running again. I'm 
> hoping the MCP tapes we have
> in the CHM archives are recoverable. I have scanned most of the software 
> listings CHM has in the
> archives and put them up on bitsavers.

If not, you'd have to cob up some Algol compiler to cross-compile ESPOL, 
and then bootstrap MCP, Algol, and ESPOL using that.  Difficult, but 
do-able, once the code gets OCR'd (or, having looked at the listings, 
more likely re-keyed.)

Peter Flass <P...@Yahoo.com>
writes:

> Jecel wrote:
>> On Feb 8, 2:42 am, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>>> You can add to that list:
>>>
>>> http://www.abc80.org/~hpa/fpga/
>>
>> Thanks! This is doubly wonderful since not only do I love FPGA based
>> retrocomputing but am also very interested in the history of computing
>> of countries outside the better known US/UK stuff.
>>
>
> From the sound of the projects being done, it sounds like it's a
> challenge to use FPGA to emulate even simple instruction sets, no?

In the same sense that emulating them in TTL chips is a challenge --
it's a comparable task, but done by writing VHDL or Veriolog instead of
by using a wire-wrap gun.

If you really want to embed a simple computing core in an FPGA project,
they're available off-the-shelf in libraries and can just be stuck in as
needed.  But that's not the goal of these projects.
-- 
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)

On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 21:57:28 +0000 (UTC), glen
herrmannsfeldt
<g...@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:

|In comp.arch.fpga Eric Chomko <p...@comcast.net> wrote:
|> 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.
|
|I haven't done it yet, but I am interested.  I have a Digilent
|Spartan3E board for that purpose.  I think it is big enough for
|the whole system for many of those machines.
|
|-- glen
|==============

Glenn

The XC3S500e is big enough to do most if not all.

james

In comp.arch.fpga james <bubba@bud.u>
wrote:
(snip)
 
> The XC3S500e is big enough to do most if not all.

Well, I have thought as far as the Sparcstation 1.
That might require a bigger FPGA.

Sun has released verilog code for more recent SPARC processors.
It is likely that those, along with the rest of an actual system,
would be too big for even the larger XC3S devices.  Maybe the
Spartan 6 is bigger.

Another one to consider is the Macintosh Plus or SE.  That is,
68000 based Mac.    Also, 68010 or 68020 based Sun systems.

-- glen 

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

-- 
/~\  c...@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!

On Feb 8, 7:05=A0pm, "Charlie Gibbs"
<cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
> 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! =A0I know this!" =A0-- Jurassic Park

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Ancient processors evolving into more terrifying CPUs?

Perhaps some things man wasn't meant to tamper with.

>
> --
> /~\ =A0cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
> \ / =A0I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
> =A0X =A0 Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. =A0See RFC1855.
> / \ =A0HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. =A0Join the ASCII ribbon campaign=
!

On 2/6/2010 12:10 PM, glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> In comp.arch.fpga Anne&  Lynn Wheeler<l...@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 used ECAP at Penn State in the late 70's.  By then, Berkley SPICE 
was looking like the better tool.

Rob.

Jecel wrote:
> I try to keep a reasonably updated list of such projects at
>
> http://www.merlintec.com:8080/hardware/31

The commodore 64 clone "C-one" which is in your list is interesting.
It has been implemented in an ASIC and has been sold as a commercial 
product.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to-TV

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.



-- 
---
http://pdp8.hachti.de