17 Nov
2019
17 Nov
'19
5:43 a.m.
On Sat, Nov 16, 2019 at 4:59 PM W2HX via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Is the BBB not fast enough to do Qbus? Meaning, for
qbus, would a FPGA be
necessary? Or was this just the op's choice among many possible options?
It does seem useful to have this thing run linux and ethernet and be able
to pass files (data and programs) back and forth very easily. the FPGA
approach seems more technically challenging but seems less universal (to my
limited mind). It would seem a BBB you could load software, test, and
reload as easily as copying some executable code (I dont know if that is
correct or an over simplification). whereas the FPGA sounds like it needs
to be recompiled/re-burned each time?
My personal experience with the Unibone is that it's very easy to work
with. Starting with zero knowledge of Joerg's platform I wrote an
RK11/RK05 emulation in about a week. MSCP took longer (about a month), but
that was entirely due to the complexity of the MSCP spec. Joerg has done
all the hard work here and has provided a really useful set of tools for
building device emulations.
I hope to have some time to do a few more devices soon -- TMSCP is on my
list, along with TC11 and RX11... I'm taking requests if anyone has 'em :).
- Josh