Hi,
> > I'd agree that's not more than actually marketing his new idea -- which
is
> > a nice idea indeed. Assuming this is true, why did he come to Tilburg
see
> > 50-odd people to tell us about his new "MSX"? To Spread The Word (word
of
> > mouth is very powerful marketing tool of course).
> Another reason is to tell MSX developers that they can publish their
software
> through ASCII once the MSX Server is up.
Why tell now ? MSX-Player is GREAT and might make this sales idea
possible... This is what I really respect Nishi for.. Linking MSX to the
all-on-one-chip thingy is pure marketing... What the 'h*ll' does an MSX need
16 MB RAM for (unless that means 2 megabytes then it's very well
thinkable).. He plans to use MSX-Player for publicity and focus people on
his noble work and will also adres the one-chip-solution which will get
interrest from the public.. Making this emulator (MSX-Player) is much
cheaper than buying publicity when you need it for that one-chip-solution..
Basically I think that making it 'MSX compatible' is a way to reach the by
then older group (still large) of 'ex-MSX' users who would get MSX games to
play on their new Palmtop for free with the actual computer.. It'll raise
questions etc... in other words publicity.. As Nischi said he wants to have
chips in his shoe.. Many laught but I found this a serious remark. With the
coming of IPV6 every cm2 on this planet (or even more) can have it's own IP
adres... That means the refrigerator can talk to your thermometer etc...
This is basically only a few years away.. What would be better then giving
much of these devices a display with interface with basic capabillities all
offered by a (in say 2008) a simple but standardized and cheap massproduced
chip ? Exactly.
> > > He claims they want to keep the clockrate of the CPU
> > > down to spare battery power, but also want people to program for the
> > > thingy in MSX code instead of native 'intend?' code... Seeying that a
CPU
> > > needs to be between 10-30 times as fast as the original emulated CPU
this
> > > seems an illogical remark..
> I asked Nishi the question "If there is also Linux and Intend on the same
> machine, why would developers choose to program MSX?". Nishi stated that
they
> didn't have to program MSX, they could choose freely. In practice, this
means
> most developers will choose Intend, because it's easy (compared to plain
> Linux) and powerful (compared to MSX). MSX emulation is there to allow old
> games to run and maybe a handful of new MSX productions, but certainly not
> the majority of software written for this new device.
Exactly what I thought... I must have miss-understood him on that issue...
> Also, filling the FPGA with MSX related programming is just one of the
> options. It could also be GameBoy emulation, or video (de)compression or
> whatever needs relatively simple tasks done at a very high speed. The name
> "new MSX" is a bit misleading, it's actually a flexible machine that is
very
> suitable for MSX emulation, but is not inherently MSX compatible.
As I said I'm excited about the product... Just not about the MSX part of it
because I don't believe it.. Call me a sceptic, call me a realist, call me
whatever you want :) The idea of reconfiguring a chip to act as another chip
is great though.
> > It's NOT emulated. The one-chip-solution is on FPGA, which can be
> > loaded with an MSX. So it is NOT emulated; the FPGA can easily handle
MSX
> > speeds.
> > > though he seems to claim that he invented the wheel from time to time.
> I had that feeling too; the connection between MPEG and MSX is still
unclear
> to me...
There is no connection..... Exactly.. The only thing that combine the two is
that both are internationally set standards which can be done in many forms
as long as the base exists and sticks to the rules.
> > Also this one-chip idea -- which is FPGA of course -- is meant to be
100%
> > like the MSX computers we're using now.
> It will definately be different, for example in the sense that there is no
> disk drive and no cartridge port. Nishi said that it is possible to create
an
> MSX cartridge adaptor using the USB 2.0 connection, but he clearly did not
> make a commitment that ASCII would produce such an adaptor.
It's not sure it'll support USB2.0 though it is likely in 3-4 years..
Remember, Nishi is mainly a 'marketing/sales' person for people outside his
company. When you ask him 'which version', he says 'the latest', when you
ask 'how fast' he'll say ..... etc..
--
For info, see http://www.stack.nl/~wynke/MSX/listinfo.html
