Re:Commander X16
by cmrdporcupine on Wednesday May 19, 2021 @09:59AM
(#27208702)
I personally didn't find Verilog all that hard to learn, and it's frankly simpler to understand and modify the "hardware" in that form than using a multimeter and logic analyzer and futzing with solder. I built myself a simple retro-style machine around a RISC-V core and my own custom designed video controller in a few weeks, without any prior Verilog experience. Although I am a software engineer, I don't feel like those skills actually helped that much.
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Re:Commander X16
by crispyambulance on Wednesday May 19, 2021 @10:46AM
(#27209374)
Kudos to you if you can go from zero to your own custom video controller implemented in an fpga in a few weeks.
But for normal humans that just want to get involved with hardware and dabble somewhat with software/firmware in the context of vintage computing, taking a detour into fpga-world would be a deep unpleasant rabbit hole unless one was specifically interested in fpga's and there was no other viable option (which in the case of custom ASIC's is admittedly quite possible).
Compared to the nightmarish complex toolchains used for fpga's, digging up some datasheets and working with a DMM, scope, and logic analyzer is a breeze and actually quite pleasurable.