14 Sep
2001
14 Sep
'01
5:11 a.m.
An idea that I've been thinking about is the
re-implementation of a classic
architecture (for me, probably a PDP-11) using entirely modern hardware. One
way to go about this would be to use a Xilinx FPGA. I know that this has
already been done for the PDP-8. Another approach would be to view a Wintel
Mentec and I think one other company have implemented the PDP-11 in FPGA.
IIRC, Mentec's version is about 4x as fast as a 11/93.
PC as a microcoded platform, and reimplement the PDP-11
on that hardware.
The microcode would be written in tightly crafted Pentium code. The machine
would bootstrap itself by loading the microcode from a special partition on
the hard drive. Since the hardware has memory to burn relative to the
Now I like this idea!
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |