Following on from foft's post/thread about 'new ATARI hardware' and recent developments and attempts at replicating various classic processor core IPs (the only one's i've heard of relate to Z80, 6502 and 68000, there might have been others)
I thought it might be an idea to consider the possibility of having a 'multi-core' 6502 (forget the cack about x64/IA64 or whatever they are passing off as 64bit these days, just a plain vanila flavoured multi-core 6502)
Seeming as though people have found ways of replicating 6502 in software (emulation) and reproducing the 6502 in all it's glory as a new processor (as mentioned above) I think the possibility is probably nearer then we think
Since the whole idea of multi-core processors is or was to be able to run various machines, systems or operation systems'virtually' from a single system without slowdown or having to reboot/restart or reset the computer
One possibility for a multi core 6502 could be used to run various classic 6502 systems (as different configs) i.e A8, c64, apple II, vic 20/Pet, Acorn/BBC, Oric etc etc but built as one system and just so out games machine loving fanbois/girlies don't miss out have a multi core 6502 system running classic 6502 gaming systems (as different configs), like the vcs/7800, lynx, nes, pc engine etc built as one system
Obviously the multi core 6502 would be an actual processor and the hardware replicating the hardware based on the various classic systems (i.e. PAG, sid/vic2/vic, tube etc etc) would be either FPGA hardware or similar
The idea here is that you could switch between the different classic systems via a toggle key, once the toggle key is used, the previous systems config and state it was left in (before you pressed the toggle key) is dumped to flash memory and each time you keep switching systems with the toggle key, the dumping action is done again but to a different block of flash memory for the previous system you were running and when you come back to the system that was first dumped to flash memory, you enter it (the selected system) where you left off and subsequently for all systems that you dumped to flash memory, since when you reenter any different system config, it first checks to see if you've previously used that config and dumped it to flash memory, if you have then it simply retrieves what was dumped/saved and restarts it from the point you left the system
this approach would be ideal for those developing programs or games across different 6502 platforms (or cross developing as i believe the term is called) as well as having a multi system design built into a single h/w platform
For the keyboard and mimicking the keyboards of the classic systems, what you'd have is a standard Pc keyboard, the various system configs would have the particular code to convert the pc keyboard into the particular system you are running and you'd have different keyboard overlays (just like the joypad overlays you got with jaguar games or vectrex screen overlays) for the keyboard so you know which keys respond to the particular key for the classic system you are running
In regards to the use of IO devices (if you are using original media formats, like tape or disk or cartridge) a seperate IO box would be possible that connects via a usb cable to the main system and on the IO box itself it would merely contain the different IO ports for the various systems the multi system is capable of running, as for cartrdiges though, you'd have a standard cartridge connector and different cartridge 'overlays' (adapters) to using cartridges from different systems
In as far as new media formats that classic systems can now use (i.e usb, cf and sd cards) those connections or ports would also be included on the IO box (saves you having different floppy/tape or cart emulators running from the system)
If such a system became popular it could be adapted for using different multi core classic processors (i.e 6800, 6809, 65816, Z80, 68000 family and so on) since a the system mother board could be upgraded to handling another multi core processor but based on a different CPU family or alternately if you remember those adapter boards that allowed pentium systems to run celeron processors (or was it the other way around) the same apprach could be used for handling multi core versions of different classic cpu families (like the ones mentioned above)
Naturally the FPGA or whatever hardware was used to replicate the various classic hardware systems could be easily upgraded by just replacing the chips and the same goes for the various different system configs, you just replace the bios chip that holds the various different system configs for the with a new bios chip containing the new set (based on that cpu family)
I thought it might be an idea to consider the possibility of having a 'multi-core' 6502 (forget the cack about x64/IA64 or whatever they are passing off as 64bit these days, just a plain vanila flavoured multi-core 6502)
Seeming as though people have found ways of replicating 6502 in software (emulation) and reproducing the 6502 in all it's glory as a new processor (as mentioned above) I think the possibility is probably nearer then we think
Since the whole idea of multi-core processors is or was to be able to run various machines, systems or operation systems'virtually' from a single system without slowdown or having to reboot/restart or reset the computer
One possibility for a multi core 6502 could be used to run various classic 6502 systems (as different configs) i.e A8, c64, apple II, vic 20/Pet, Acorn/BBC, Oric etc etc but built as one system and just so out games machine loving fanbois/girlies don't miss out have a multi core 6502 system running classic 6502 gaming systems (as different configs), like the vcs/7800, lynx, nes, pc engine etc built as one system
Obviously the multi core 6502 would be an actual processor and the hardware replicating the hardware based on the various classic systems (i.e. PAG, sid/vic2/vic, tube etc etc) would be either FPGA hardware or similar
The idea here is that you could switch between the different classic systems via a toggle key, once the toggle key is used, the previous systems config and state it was left in (before you pressed the toggle key) is dumped to flash memory and each time you keep switching systems with the toggle key, the dumping action is done again but to a different block of flash memory for the previous system you were running and when you come back to the system that was first dumped to flash memory, you enter it (the selected system) where you left off and subsequently for all systems that you dumped to flash memory, since when you reenter any different system config, it first checks to see if you've previously used that config and dumped it to flash memory, if you have then it simply retrieves what was dumped/saved and restarts it from the point you left the system
this approach would be ideal for those developing programs or games across different 6502 platforms (or cross developing as i believe the term is called) as well as having a multi system design built into a single h/w platform
For the keyboard and mimicking the keyboards of the classic systems, what you'd have is a standard Pc keyboard, the various system configs would have the particular code to convert the pc keyboard into the particular system you are running and you'd have different keyboard overlays (just like the joypad overlays you got with jaguar games or vectrex screen overlays) for the keyboard so you know which keys respond to the particular key for the classic system you are running
In regards to the use of IO devices (if you are using original media formats, like tape or disk or cartridge) a seperate IO box would be possible that connects via a usb cable to the main system and on the IO box itself it would merely contain the different IO ports for the various systems the multi system is capable of running, as for cartrdiges though, you'd have a standard cartridge connector and different cartridge 'overlays' (adapters) to using cartridges from different systems
In as far as new media formats that classic systems can now use (i.e usb, cf and sd cards) those connections or ports would also be included on the IO box (saves you having different floppy/tape or cart emulators running from the system)
If such a system became popular it could be adapted for using different multi core classic processors (i.e 6800, 6809, 65816, Z80, 68000 family and so on) since a the system mother board could be upgraded to handling another multi core processor but based on a different CPU family or alternately if you remember those adapter boards that allowed pentium systems to run celeron processors (or was it the other way around) the same apprach could be used for handling multi core versions of different classic cpu families (like the ones mentioned above)
Naturally the FPGA or whatever hardware was used to replicate the various classic hardware systems could be easily upgraded by just replacing the chips and the same goes for the various different system configs, you just replace the bios chip that holds the various different system configs for the with a new bios chip containing the new set (based on that cpu family)