Search found 48 matches

by PurpleGirl
27 Feb 2020, 16:02
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Modified Gigatron Design Ideas
Replies: 57
Views: 53798

Video separation and dual core Gigatron CPU

I'm still trying to figure out how to split the video from the CPU on the Gigatron or a similar homebrew design. The easiest parts are generating the syncs and doing D/A conversion on the video signal. I don't know how to build the rest of the controller, how to offload the video generation onto har...
by PurpleGirl
14 Feb 2020, 19:02
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Modified Gigatron Design Ideas
Replies: 57
Views: 53798

Re: dual core Gigatron CPU

I am not sure if I want to build anything at this point, TBH, though I might want to try to learn Verilog. The momentum I was building sort of died and the different threads with different but overlapping ideas helped to build it. And I get what you are saying, but jumbling up different ideas doesn'...
by PurpleGirl
11 Feb 2020, 23:09
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Modified Gigatron Design Ideas
Replies: 57
Views: 53798

Re: dual core Gigatron CPU

I agree with the separation of the ideas because they probably will have different solutions. But why not continue to use this forum instead of yet another place? I and others initially put everything in separate threads. The only way I can control the integrity, quality and coherence of what I pos...
by PurpleGirl
11 Feb 2020, 06:48
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Modified Gigatron Design Ideas
Replies: 57
Views: 53798

New Reddit Sub

Since everything I posted is jumbled up with unrelated things all merged together, I just created a new Reddit sub and I may copy everything I posted in its own thread. That might be the best since I can then get my thoughts together. And if others want to copy in their replies from here, that would...
by PurpleGirl
02 Feb 2020, 21:16
Forum: Escape Meta Alt Control Shift
Topic: #Random
Replies: 3
Views: 6352

Steganography

A disturbing trend is countries making it against the law to have encrypted files on your hard drive unless you have the means to decrypt them. The problem here is when innocent people have files that are not encrypted and the government thinks they are. An obvious example would be having a huge fil...
by PurpleGirl
02 Feb 2020, 20:57
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Modified Gigatron Design Ideas
Replies: 57
Views: 53798

Re: dual core Gigatron CPU

I've been mulling this over for a few months. For more processing power the following ideas came up in my mind: * Discrete video card * Doubling to 16-bit data and instructions, possibly adding some MMX style instructions for multiple register and ALU ops per instruction. * Adding SMP/multicore supp...
by PurpleGirl
02 Feb 2020, 08:28
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Modified Gigatron Design Ideas
Replies: 57
Views: 53798

Re: vCPU Coprocessor

I hadn't thought of that, but someone could write a vCPU emulator for the PC or ARM that works through the USB port. That would be one way to test the concept.
by PurpleGirl
30 Jan 2020, 00:48
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Pluggy Reloaded
Replies: 149
Views: 106466

Re: Pluggy Reloaded

Yeah, CardTest.gcl works with the expansion card with the memory and SD cards. The reason for the random pixels is because it uses the undefined instructions that won't work unless something external is putting stuff on the bus. So, with no expansion card plugged into the memory socket or intercepti...
by PurpleGirl
27 Jan 2020, 04:50
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Modified Gigatron Design Ideas
Replies: 57
Views: 53798

vCPU Coprocessor

I've been sort of wondering about the possibility of making a GCL/vCPU coprocessor so user programs could run at full speed. The instruction set is pretty much a done deal, though there would be room in the opcode map to create more instructions, even those not in the Gigatron. It would need to have...
by PurpleGirl
26 Jan 2020, 06:56
Forum: Hardware and software hacking
Topic: Gigatron optimisation for a lite version?
Replies: 11
Views: 11101

Re: Gigatron optimisation for a lite version?

I've played with some ideas along this line. The ALU takes about 45ns, and the fastest ROM you can get is about 45ns, though you might be able to push it some. So no real advantage if you want to replace the whole ALU. A useful way to use ROM for calculation would be a multiplier. I would use a 16-b...