But now we have systems disks, source code, microcode
and schematics.
So we can emulate lilith at a variety of levels from, say, a simple
Linux/X11 software version
My "simple" Linux/X11 version is still not running...
to a low-level TTL reproduction (thought you'd
have to source AMD29xx bit-slice processor parts).
The 2901's are simple. But the sheer size of such a task is daunting..
Around 500 IC's....
Importantly for me
the new information contains it's bitmap formats
so my MCode interpreter
in 'C' can support the missing graphics opcodes.
Is your C-code available somewhere ?
Lilith is really an impressive European graphics workstation, which
although not as revolutionary as the Alto was certainly radical for the
time even though it predated the Macintosh by only 2 or 3 years.
Amongst its many interesting facets:
Some more interesting facts :
No hierarchical filesystem, dodgy & very noisy diskdrive, 4 big & loud fans,
apple-II compatible floppy disk with a 9600 bd serial access , keytronics keyboard
with those damned foampads , problematic 4116's ( 128 of them ), asynchroneous access
to the memory by graphics hardware, instruction fetch unit and CPU etc. etc.
( but yes, it remains a very interesting piece of hardware )
In the end it's the use of MCode which should allow a firmware-level emulation to run
original systems disks on a simple Microcontroller and that kinda interests me: A lilith
for only a few ?/?/$ :-)
So, one day I'll have my own Lilith, and it will fit in my pocket ;-)
An FPGA based copy should certainly be feasible, the 64 bit wide memory access is not
strictly required.
Jos