On 2023-01-23 11:37, Jim Brain via cctalk wrote:
In the spirit of the original thought, though, where I find myself scratching my head are the folks who have replaced every IC on their vintage system with an aftermarket FPGA "equivalent" (loosely used here). The resulting board, with all of the expensive FPGA devices, costs much more than obtaining a second stock unit, and when every IC has been replaced with FPGA, I am not sure I see the value over just obtaining an FPGA-based design where all of the IC functionality has been aggregated into 1 larger HDL-based device. The "keyhole" nature of replacing each individual IC seems expensive, prone to issues, and still relies on constraints of the original motherboard and/or mobo design. But, I smile and nod when I see them at shows, since it must make sense to the owner, and that's how they enjoy the hobby.
For me, it is a way to make sure, I understood the original machine/chip. If you can replace the original chip with an CPLD/FPGA, you probably have an idea, what you're talking about.
Same with emulators. But, I'm talking about guys doing it, not using it :)
