I, for one, think that would definately be useful. I forgot about Xess...
I would be posting the other cores I plan on implementing, but opencores.org is down... So...
I'm gonna ramble on here, because I've been reading that
previous thread about the 65032/832. Probably the reason it never got off the ground was
anticipated lack of software support.
The 6502 has loads of useful software, be it assemblers, etc. When I made the jump to the 65816 recently, I become a little more restricted in taking advantage of the chip. Then the 65032/832? So what if you have a piece of silicon. Unfortunately, you can't develop with it unless there is software to support it. I think there is a shortage of M. Kowalski types around...
I guess what I'm saying is: It is nice to have backward hardware compatibility, but I shouldn't have to pay for a $500 software dev kit. I don't want a $500 IC either... Why not make the IC cost more and make the dev software free? I would pay >$50 <$100 per '816, if I had a good software product to develop it with...
Mass production doesn't start instantly... It all starts with the individual tinkerer. I think someone has lost sight of this in their accounting dep't formulas.
Look at the success of Xilinx FPGA's/CPLD's. Their software is readily available, and easy to use to develop their IC's, even without the need for evaluation boards...