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Re: [colorforth] Ideas

On Monday 01 March 2004 03:41 am, webstaff wrote:
> @sam: would you host a colorforth faq project on your wiki?

Yes, absolutely.  :)

There have been some discussions on the #Forth channel on IRC of late 
about a computer *kit* that can sold.  The device is a *strongly* 
stripped down version of my original ForthBox concept, and is based 
heavily (architecturally) on the Sinclair ZX-80 design.  Someone (I 
forget who now) proposed the name ForthBox Kestral for it.  I'm not sure 
I'd use Kestral, but naming different ForthBox designs after various 
birds seems as natural a thing to do as certain people naming their 
computers after their favorite food (e.g., Apple and Macintosh).  Why 
not?

Anyway, this is related to ColorForth *not* because it'll be a color 
computer.  Quite the contrary, since the CPU will be providing the 
necessary video refresh (sorry; keeps parts count down and thus, makes 
it very, very cheap to produce), it'll be straight monochrome due to 
lowish clock speeds.  But it provides a platform based 100% on 
non-proprietary hardware[1], and thus, ought to be an easier platform to 
write software for.  That being said, it's NOT going to be suitable for 
compute-intensive tasks.  But, for making games, or using it as a 
terminal for a more sophisticated computer system (e.g., it ought to be 
possible to make an IRC terminal or e-mail terminal out of it), it 
should be ideal.  I miss kit computers anyway.  Oh, and no, it will 
*not* have a text-mode display.  Because the CPU is responsible for 
bit-banging the video shift register directly, graphics ARE possible 
(and encouraged), and thus, "ColorForth" on such a device might be 
implemented as, say, "FontForth."  :)

Anyway, I bring this up because my Wiki has a lot of stuff on the 
ForthBox concept that I've been developing since the beginning of this 
year.  However, it hasn't been updated in a while; that's largely due to 
my personal lack of bandwidth.  However, the concept isn't dead.

If anyone is interested in owning a ForthBox Kestral, please let me know 
via personal e-mail.  Making kits is expensive (though not nearly as 
expensive as a pre-built project), and I want to know that there is 
interest before I make the investments necessary to "kit" the project.

NOTE 1: The microprocessor chip to be used is the Western Design Center 
65816.  AMPLE development guidance and documentation can be found at the 
http://www.6502.org website.  The 65816 is a 16-bit refinement over the 
6502, and can address 16MB of memory.  Whether or not I'll make use of 
the latter remains to be seen in making the circuit work (getting at the 
upper 8 address bits is tricky when driving the chip with a fast clock; 
I'm thinking of driving it at 12.5MHz).  That being said, though, that's 
about the most proprietary chip you'll find in the whole design.

--
Samuel A. Falvo II


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