BitWise wrote:
I stumbled across a new PIC chip (24FJ256DA210) that contains an embedded graphics generator, CLUT and 96K of RAM (enough for QVGA 320x240 @ 8 bpp) that looks interesting. Slightly higher resolutions and colour depths are possible if integrated with an external RAM. The graphics controller can do some simple blitter functions, character drawing and image decompression.
Its designed to drive a LCD screen directly but looks like it could be made to output VGA compatible signals. No sprites but you would have almost 100% of 16 MIPS to program anything like that with.
The chip runs at 3V3 but the pins for I2C and SPI are 5V tolerant. The 100pin chips have an EPSP interface that in slave mode would allow them to attached as a 4 addressable memory locations on an 8-bit data bus - all control signals would have to be 3V3 and you couldn't have external RAM.
Not bad for less that $8.
That PIC chip looks pretty awesome! Could be the basis for a game machine.
I don't have any interest in those first-person shooter games --- I think they are a negative influence on society.
I'm thinking about more old-school games.
I wonder if one of the 6502 soft-core processors could be upgraded to simulate the Commodore-64, including graphics and music. I think people who want to write video games would be more interested in starting with a familiar platform, such as the venerable C64, rather than start from scratch with a big learning curve on a new design. The idea would be that the processor would run 6502 code, so it could run the legacy C64 programs. It would have 16-bit registers though, so new games could be written more easily, would run faster, and would take up less memory.
The M65c02A would be a possible basis for this --- I have studied it and I think it is a better target for Forth than the 65c816 --- the code may be more bloaty though, because of all those prebytes.
Are there any other soft-core processors that run old 6502 code, but also have 16-bit registers to allow new programs to be more efficient?
What is the legal status on the C64? Is it legal to build a modern C64 that runs old C64 code?
I wonder what the legal status is of all those old C64 cartridges --- it is possible that the owners would just give away the right to distribute them freely --- it is not like there is any further expectation of making money on them.
I'm familiar with the Apple-IIc, and it didn't really compare very well with the C64 --- it is not worth thinking about today.
I'm not familiar with the Atari-2600 --- I don't think it was quite as good as the C64, but a lot of people liked it --- it might be worth thinking about.
This is a 6502 forum, so everybody here likes the 6502.
Other than running legacy 6502 programs though (such as C64 cartridges), why be interested in the 6502? It seems unlikely that anybody would choose to write a new program in 6502 assembly-language when processors such as that PIC chip are available, and are orders of magnitude more capable.