GARTHWILSON wrote:
Quote:
My library doesnt have all the 74 series so I am using what performs the same function.
You
can make your own parts, can't you??
digidice, it's great that you're diving into this head first, but I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea for you to make your first computer simpler. Our first efforts tend to be overblown which makes them hard to complete at all, either because we bit off more than we could chew, or after it's built we find it has problems we don't yet have the knowledge to fix or problems that can't be fixed without starting over on part of it.
My first one worked, but I didn't have the experience yet to know what would be useful, and this one was not much good for anything. My next one was a lot less work and did a lot more.
Yes, I can make my own parts, I did make quite a few while I was using expresssch, but I started using Eagle and have not messed with the libraries.
I actually spent a lot of time with the APATCO 6502 computer trainer kit and messed around quite a bit on the ELF2K (1802 RCA CPU) Plus what I remember from 20 plus years ago with the C64 hardware. I can understand the whole biting off more than you can chew, but I really like the idea of 16M of memory address space and 16 bit capability of the 816 (I wish there was a 32bit 6502).
So, yes the design is getting more complicated, with the hope that when its all said and done It will be a nice expandable system, As I may have mentioned before I have thought about using a PC ISA back plane which would support expanded devices, even if its not PC ISA compatible, Maybe even an S100 Bus.
Here are the goals Im looking at,
Useful.
Low Cost to performance.
Fully populated memory.
Expandable. (VGA, Sound, USB, IDE, Serial/Parallel, Ethernet, etc.)
Easy to assemble. (IE no BGA or something that is difficult to solder up.)
I know most of you good people have been down the road before, And because I want more than just an LCD display a Ram and Rom IC the design is getting much more complicated. Hence I am asking for input on where I might be going wrong. I really would like to keep this an open project where everyone could build one and maybe it might take on a life of its own? especially if its expandable.
EDIT: I changed the EEPROM to and 32K maybe I should make it a 16K or maybe 8K? Im not sure how much I will need to code up a decent BIOS.
Your thoughts?
Kent