Commander X16

b/Hardware publicado por u/Yuki July 18, 2020, 12:33:40 AM

Commander X16

If you follow the 8-Bit Guy, you might know he's working on a brand new Commodore 64-like computer, and it looks quite interesting: the hardware is close to done, there's an emulator and many tools developed around it, and they even have permission from whoever ended up with the Commodore IP to build on the 64's ROM!

So yeah, I'm a mod on the brand-new forums and we're starting to get a nice community going on, if you want to check it out

https://commanderx16.com

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u/Dream of Omnimaga July 18, 2020, 01:56:08 PM

If it doesn't cost $300-400 like a real Commodore 64, then I might be interested.

As far as Commodore IP goes, I wonder who acquired them when they went bankrupt in 1994? I know the Atari Jaguar is now public-domain, but I forgot about the CD32 and the Commodore computers.

EDIT: Actually this seems a bit different than the C64. Will it run C64 stuff?

u/Yuki July 18, 2020, 02:11:50 PM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on July 18, 2020, 01:56:08 PMIf it doesn't cost $300-400 like a real Commodore 64, then I might be interested.

Probably more like $200. It's made to be as low cost as possible using off-the-shelf components.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on July 18, 2020, 01:56:08 PMAs far as Commodore IP goes, I wonder who acquired them when they went bankrupt in 1994? I know the Atari Jaguar is now public-domain, but I forgot about the CD32 and the Commodore computers.

It's a company called Cloanto, and they're still very protective of their IP.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on July 18, 2020, 01:56:08 PMEDIT: Actually this seems a bit different than the C64. Will it run C64 stuff?

Yes and no, it's based on the C64 and it's compatible with it up to a point but the graphics and the sound are very different. It uses a custom graphics card (which will work on the C64 if you want), and last I heard it uses a YM2151 and a PSG instead of a SID.

u/Jean-Baptiste Boric July 20, 2020, 10:37:19 PM

I'll admit I have some trouble determining what this is for exactly.

It has a ridiculous amount of RAM for a 6502-based system, even in its basic configuration. Commodore BASIC as far as I understand is an extremely old BASIC dialect that hasn't really evolved since the Commodore PET release in 1977, that couldn't handle an eighth of the base RAM configuration anyway (BBC BASIC would appear to be a much better BASIC to use). This has obviously some Commodore DNA in it yet it is explicitly not compatible with any Commodore computer despite having a beefy FPGA onboard...

I do not know how the Commander X16 is architectured, yet I can't help but think it won't go for what'd be obvious to me: bridging every single pin on the 6502 to the FPGA and make this a software-defined computer. Doing so would allow this to be a PET, VIC-20, C64 and a Commander X16 in a single package, just a bitstream upload to the FPGA away. If the motherboard is also separated from the CPU+RAM+FPGA board, other motherboards could be designed for the Atari, Apple and BBC Micro families of 6502 home computers. Stretching this idea even further would include other CPU boards for the z80, 68000 and so on for other computer and console families... Obviously not to be developed all at once, but it could be a concept with almost limitless potential for evolution.

I feel this will be just another 6502 computer, whereas it could be THE 6502 computer. But that's how I'd think about doing that if I were to do such a project.

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