Ken, That all sounds really promising. I will order one or two of those screens for a mockup. I will meet with the engineer who will help with the housing. I will draw it today or tomorrow in CAD and work with him to refine it. I might as well dimension it for that screen. The only question is about ports. We can fix that later as there will be several iterations. When I have the drawing done we can discuss your thoughts. I will need to know what board we will use or at least some dimensions. A cool thing with the FPGA would be that they could addany sy
I am not an FPGA guy but I guess the idea would be to put it on a less expensive board. Remember Ken that I have not touched an FPGA since 2007 and that was brief. I think the less expensive the better on the board so the COGs are low on the design and this will make it as accessible as possible. BR /RGM On Mon, May 24, 2021 at 7:30 AM Ken Pettit <petti...@gmail.com> wrote: > Rob, > > Also, finding a large format 240x64 LCD is near impossible. I found some > that are 5" diagonal, but compared to the 8" diagonal on the Model 100, > this is still pretty small. For a modern update (i.e. Model 401), you > would probably want to to with something like this full color LCD and take > care of the protocol difference in an RTL module in the FPGA: > > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/292910561674?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=292910561674&targetid=1264366839729&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9061205&poi=&campaignid=11616981724&mkgroupid=123084477340&rlsatarget=pla-1264366839729&abcId=9300455&merchantid=102019429&gclid=CjwKCAjw-qeFBhAsEiwA2G7Nl9j3Z7bUDPWfr_bR3zQ2FELXd8BEcvVFlTCh1q_JiMbD7aQ5DUdDYxoCyS4QAvD_BwE > > Ken > > On 5/22/21 2:18 PM, Rob Messer wrote: > > Ken, > > That is awesome! I am admittedly a mechanical engineer and I took one > semester of computer engineering and VHDL programming and changed majors (I > was more of a beer drinker than D&D guy). In any event I will rope in some > colleagues and badger them with questions. Another question is whether > there are LCD screens close to what the Model 100 had still available > (240X64) with similar dimensions. It think backlit would be great. > > I have been really saddened to see fewer and fewer Model 100s on Ebay. I > also think the machine could be very useful still. I am thinking about > people who want to work without distraction of the internet and have some > basic capabilities. Imagine adding some minor features like bluetooth file > transfer and an SD card slot, that would make this a very useful device. It > will be the model 104 :) > > If you want to share this on Github that would be great! I will be sure to > update you on the progress! > > BR > > /RGM > > On Sat, May 22, 2021 at 9:44 PM Ken Pettit <petti...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hey Rob, >> >> I have an RTL design I worked on YEARS ago where I was trying to get the >> Model 100 in an FPGA along with some extensions. It was back when there >> was a lot of talk on the list about a Model 401. For those who weren't >> around then or don't recall, the Model 401 was something that was >> discussed around April Fools day (thus the number 401) about an updated >> Model 100. >> >> I actually had this running somewhat on an Actel Igloo FPGA at that >> time, though not fully. I believe I had extended the 8085 instruction >> set to add relative jump and branch opcodes using the "MOV A,A", "MOV >> B,B" etc. opcodes which are basically useless and not used in the M100 >> ROM. I was also planning at that time to have a 2-processor system >> where the LCD and Keyboard would be shared by both the extended 8085 and >> an ARM core. The keyboard controller I wrote detects a hotkey escape >> sequence to connect the LCD and keyboard to either the ARM interface or >> the 8085 interface. >> >> I just re-ran my RTL simulation and I see that it is at least running >> and generating an output on the RTL testbench LCD monitor that I wrote. >> This LCD monitor in the testbench monitors all LCD writes and outputs >> "pixels" as X'x to a Linux /dev/pty device. Then with minicom connected >> using Linux socat, I can see what the emulation is sending to the LCD. >> I have attached a snapshot of the output of the simulation (the dots are >> actually very small X's, just zoomed out so it's like a 3-point font on >> minicom or something). You can see the minicom status line at the bottom >> in a very small font. I can see the time isn't advancing, so maybe >> something not quite right with the clock chip RTL (uPD1990.v). >> >> If you would like to use this RTL as a starting point, I'm happy to post >> it to github and give you a link. The files in this design are: >> >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 4108 Apr 16 2012 armspi.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 97936 Apr 12 2012 cpu8085.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 2468 May 8 2016 fifo1kx13sram.v >> -rw-r--r-- 1 kpettit users 1531 May 9 2016 hvsync_generator.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 19422 Mar 31 2012 im6402.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 8344 May 6 2016 keymap.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 12032 May 5 2016 keyscan.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 40316 May 7 2016 lcd.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 687 May 9 2016 m100rom.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 6383 Apr 13 2012 mapper.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 16475 May 7 2016 model401.v >> -rw-r--r-- 1 kpettit users 7842 May 5 2016 nr5_tx8n.vhd >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 6161 May 4 2016 nr5_uart.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 5947 Apr 7 2012 pio8155.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 1825 Mar 23 2012 ramCore512.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 1836 Apr 11 2012 ramCore512x9.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 9971 Apr 15 2012 socTop.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 1036 May 9 2016 sram32k.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 1114 May 7 2016 sram512.v >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 1116 May 8 2016 sram512x9.v >> -rw-r--r-- 1 kpettit users 9053 May 5 2016 uart_rx8n.vhd >> -rw-rw-r-- 1 kpettit users 10794 Apr 7 2012 uPD1990.v >> >> Ken >> >> On 5/22/21 11:22 AM, Rob Messer wrote: >> > I have followed this email list for a years and I have never asked a >> > question...but here goes! I am sitting here with my model 100 and I >> > had an idea to 3D print a replica case and get my hands on an LCD and >> > mechanical keyboard and try to faithfully reproduce the Model 100 with >> > simple additions. I have enlisted a few friends (we are all >> > engineers)... I was wondering of anyone knows of an FPGA >> > implementation of the Model 100 hardware? I want to make a fairly >> > faithful reproduction short of using an 80C85. >> > >> > Thanks! >> > >> > -- >> > Robert Messer >> > BARA Sweden >> > >> > >> >> > > -- > Robert Messer > Palisandergatan 13 > Bara Sverige 23040 > Tel: 01146708901871 > www.linkedin.com/in/robert-messer-a3833b4 > > > > -- Robert Messer Palisandergatan 13 Bara Sverige 23040 Tel: 01146708901871 www.linkedin.com/in/robert-messer-a3833b4
