We've been talking about this project for a few days and have had a number of ideas on how to approach it. In the interest of moving forward in an orderly manner I'd like to propose the following. Obviously it's all open to debate but I'd like to try to consolidate what we've been discussing in a single message and also propose a few things.

GOAL: An 8052-based computer with capabilities similar to those of the old Atari 8-bit computers (or Apple or Commodore which also used 6502).

SPECIFICATIONS:

1. VGA output. We've been debating whether to drive the VGA with an external VGA chipset or VGA card or attempt to drive it with a secondary 8052. I'd propose that a secondary 8052 be used which would receive video commands from the central 8052. What the secondary 8052 does with the video commands--be it actually generate the video itself or relay the video to a VGA chipset--is a different issue. But by defining that we have two 8052's in the computer and one of them is dedicated to video the development of the OS can proceed and it doesn't have to care whether the video is being driven by the secondary 8052 or whether the secondary 8052 is driving a VGA chipset. In fact, this approach would allow both approaches to be developed by those interested in doing so. The video aspect becomes a subsystem and the primary system doesn't have to care which is being used.

2. SOUND: I think we can use the primary 8052 to generate sound, can't we?

3. NATIVE 8052. I believe the goal should be a native 8052 computer, not to emulate the 6502. At least for now. We may want to make design considerations for the possibility of future emulation, but I personally don't see much use in emulating 6502 on an 8052.

4. USB: If we choose an 8052 that has USB capabilities we may be able to give this computer a USB feature. This could be useful for connecting keyboards, mice, or just about anything else.

5. STORAGE: I was thinking IDE originally--and that might be a good idea--but then again do we really need a 1GB hard drive for an 8052? Last night I was thinking we might want to consider using an SD card (my favorite) or CompactFlash for storage rather than a hard drive. Power requirements would be less, it's much smaller, and the memory sizes of those devices are more in line with what an 8052 computer would probably need.

6. OTHER DEVICES: I'd like to see 2 joystick ports. :) We might also want a PS/2-style keyboard port? We could depend on USB keyboards if we go with an 8052 that supports USB, but I think it'd be reasonable to have a PS/2 keyboard port as a backup.

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Craig Steiner