Post A9OQviuo9RbevWI0DA by vertigo@hackers.town
 (DIR) More posts by vertigo@hackers.town
 (DIR) Post #A9OQvhB2c7P3XHrwEi by daremo@fosstodon.org
       2021-07-17T21:48:24Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @vertigo I just ran across your 9P video on SVFIG youtube. Is ForthBox your latest hardware project?
       
 (DIR) Post #A9OQvhd2vznww8yIt6 by vertigo@hackers.town
       2021-07-17T21:50:50Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @daremo Kinda sorta, yeah.  Although I am strongly considering changing away from using a Forth CPU and sticking with more conventional CPUs and programming languages going forward.Forth just isn't capturing my imagination like it used to years ago.
       
 (DIR) Post #A9OQvi2vNmVMEP4yDw by daremo@fosstodon.org
       2021-07-17T21:53:09Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @vertigo Did you develop your own Forth CPU, or use an existing?
       
 (DIR) Post #A9OQviS5sCdbUSr4SG by vertigo@hackers.town
       2021-07-17T21:58:32Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @daremo I've developed several stack CPUs over the years (the Kestrel-2 computer ran on my home-made S16X4A processor).The ForthBox processor is a new design, albeit inspired by the S16X4A (think Intel 8080 to 8086 transition).  It is only an interpreted byte-code virtual  machine at the moment; no running hardware exists.Honestly, I think I'm going to abandon the project.  If I do go with another Forth-type processor, I'd probably look at adopting @neauoire 's UXN as the basis for the processor design.  It's much better designed than mine, I think.
       
 (DIR) Post #A9OQviuo9RbevWI0DA by vertigo@hackers.town
       2021-07-17T22:02:53Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       @daremo On the other hand, though, I'm not as interested in being cutting edge anymore.  I'm strongly considering returning to the 65816 architecture once I out-grow the Z80 that's in my RC2014.  After that, I'll probably revisit the RISC-V architecture again.So, in all honesty, right now, most of my hardware development effort has been in basically cloning Commodore's VDC chip (so I have a proper 80-column display), and once that's done, I plan on building out the intelligent I/O architecture so I have keyboard, mouse, and reasonable mass-storage access (all accessible as 9P mount-points).
       
 (DIR) Post #A9ORY399NcrAg3H0RE by daremo@fosstodon.org
       2021-07-17T22:04:40Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @vertigo Cloning the VDC in an FPGA?
       
 (DIR) Post #A9ORY3dHZaxYBVN4PA by vertigo@hackers.town
       2021-07-17T22:12:09Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @daremo Yes.  My Hackaday project for the #vdc2 #vdcII  is here: https://hackaday.io/project/170581-vdc-iiThe primary goal is to make an 80-column display for my RC2014 computer.  That is goal #1.Once that's done, it's time to enhance the #VDC with support for interlace mode, so it can be used as a replacement chip for the #Commodore128.  I've had several #Commodore 128 owners ask me about this feature.Longer-term, I'd like to add palette registers, raster compare interrupt, and support for HyperRAM, giving it up to 64MB of video memory and newer video modes to make use of it.