[cctalk] Re: Good C to FPGA/PLA compiler

Martin, The debug board will need to have the following functionality: 1. Read and write to/from memory when the CPU is running using one cycle data break (DEC's version of DMA for the PDP-8). Single Cycle DMA requires some interesting signaling, including putting the priority on the data bus during part of the cycle. 2. Read and write to/from memory when the CPU is halted using front panel emulation (something totally different than one cycle data break unfortunately) 3. Handle 4 breakpoints (based on address, data, R/W and count) and signal the cpu to stop.  I don't know, yet, if there will be enough time in the CPU's instruction cycle to top the CPU before the fetch of the next instruction.  If this cannot be done in hardware than a much more crude break point system can be done in software. 4. There are 96 active signals on the PDP-8/E's Omnibus.  I expect to need most or all of them for this project. 5. The Omnibus is an open drain, active low bus where +2.7V to +4.5V is a zero and -0.5 to +0.4V is a one.  I don't necessarily need a 5V tolerant gate array but what ever I use to interface to the bus will need to be. A full description of the Omnibus can be found here: https://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/standards/EL-00157_00_A_DEC_STD_157_OMNIBUS_S… Coding the break point system in some kind of parallel C like language seems way easier to me than to write this in gates.  I don't have a clue how to design the count registers. I need to get #'s 1 and 2 working first and then I can dive into #3. Thanks.