BRANE writes: > > Or as Zeljko suggested a Crusoe (which is not crap) :-) > > However because of their NDAs, binding agreements etc. it's out of the > > question too. > > I don't like Transmeta. Very closed design. > > > Another VERY good idea is the PowerPC (especially the new offerings from > > IBM) which may not be that low consumption as a say a MIPS but it's > > definitely the best CPU around in terms of price/performance for your > buck. > > Not to mention that it is fully supported. 68K-to-PowerPC translators > > already exist and it could be the stuff of dreams for all hobby-computing > > afficionados (our QLers included). Unfortunately that too would require a > > huge investment, the market just doesn't have... > > > > As I see it, PowerPC is not so vastly different from MIPS. > I have searched for a nice model, but there is not such a thing. Everything > is either in BGA, obsolete or otherwise problematic. > > > Maybe (I say maybe) a good idea would be (given the QLs 20th anniversary) > > to gather all die-hard Amiga, Atari, QL (and other currently regarded-as- > > obscure) platform users to provide a viable alternative to the > > mainstream... maybe a sourceforge project even? > > Not a bad idea. But IMHO problem with these things is: > > -closed design with finite resources. Whoever does the design, tries to bake > a buck (or ten) from selling it > > -they try to be 100% compatible and end up being uninteresting > > I am contemplating doing good old QL with new chips as a dead simple > few_chips_design, preferably with old 68000. > > But problems that arise from that keep me spinning in an endless loop. > > With 68000, it's hard to ensure bandwidth needed for generation of a decent > picture (like 800x600 with 16bp or such). > If design is beefed up for this, it stops being simple. > If I consider alternatives, it causes chain of design changes which end with > whole thing being awfuly degeneric and mutated. > > Only few_chip_design that would capture true QL spirit while still being > simple that I can envision is to do whole thing with Analog Devices > ADSP-2192 DSP, emulating 68000 with DSP/blitter/FPU extensions. > > Everything else could be packed in a simple CPLD, along with a couple of > SDRAMs. > > Unfortunately, ADSP-2192 is not cheap, until recently it was unavailable and > there is no free development software for it. Besides, it could probably > emulate 68000 at some 30/50 MHz. With incredible math performance, but still > quite dated integer performance. > > So, after all this it seems to me that using MIPS (or similar machine) with > Linux and optinally emultaing native QL seems like a optimal solution...
StrongARM? Per
