One of the more unfashionable historians available on YouTube is the 8-Bit Guy. After years of looking to do something like this, it’s finally happening. The 8-Bit Guy is building his dream computer, closely stimulated by the Commodore 64.
Before we move into what this laptop will do and what talents it will have, it’s vital to be aware that the 8-Bit Guy is sincerely doing a bit of market and user research before dedicating 12 months or more to this assignment. He’s requested other well-known retrocomputing YouTubers for their entries on what their ‘dream’ retro computer has to do and that they’ve provided you with a simple list of requirements. The Dream Computer can be like working on a 1957 Chevy in that all the registers are right away available for peeking and poking. The laptop can be completely understandable. Up to now, one man or woman can recognize the whole thing, from the man or woman’s common sense gates in the CPU to the structure of the kernel. It’ll run BASIC.
In the age of the Raspberry Pi, one might ask, ‘Why not go together with a Raspberry Pi?’. To the eight-bit Guy, the Pi is only a Linux computer. Other retrocomputing tasks of comparable scope to this dream computer also fail The Mega65, so an undertaking to resurrect the Commodore sixty-five could be too expensive. The BASIC Engine fails because it simplest does composite out, and it runs on an ESP anyway to protect you from the real hardware. An equal problem exists with the Maximite in that the hardware is one layer of abstraction away from the interface. The C256 Phoenix is probably the closest to meeting the layout dreams. However, it’s too steeply priced, or even without the MIDI ports, SID chips, and other exciting hardware; it might still be above the desired charge factor.
The ‘requirement’ for this dream laptop is to apply the best cutting-edge elements, have VGA or HDMI video out, a real CPU, preferably a 6502, use no FPGA or microcontrollers, and may run Commodore Basic. Also, this pc could cost about $50, with $100 because of the absolute, most limit (implying a BOM price of around $15-$25). This is truly, absolutely, astonishingly impossible. I could be deceiving you if I no longer mention the impossibility of this undertaking with the stated goals. This venture will not meet the goal of selling for much less than a hundred greenbacks.
That said, there’s no harm in trying, so The 8-Bit Guy is running with a few dev boards, particularly one designed around the 65816 CPU. The 65816 is an exciting chip in that it’s miles a 6502 until you flip a bit in a register. It has a larger cope with space than the 6502, and everything from the World of Commodore needs to be (fairly) effortlessly ported to the 65816. Why was this CPU in no way utilized in Commodore hardware? Because a Western Design Center income guy advised a Commodore engineer that Apple was using it in their subsequent pc (the Apple IIgs). The alternative of Commodore ever using the ‘816 died then and there.
If you want to assist with this computer, a Facebook group organizes the build. This Facebook organization is a closed group, which means you want a Facebook account to log in. Unfortunately, we’re looking forward to a year of updates around this dream laptop. Building a computer that meets the specifications is impossible. However, we’re more than eager to look at the community attempt.