A few months ago I received an MSX computer from a good friend of mine. I never owned an 8-bit computer before (my first computer was an XT). After a lot of awe for the simpler MSX days, I decided to look how to start a project around it. My plan is to build yet-another cartridge for the MSX, taking some ideas from current ones. Here my own wishlist:
- Open source hardware
- Inexpensive
- Easy to assemble at home using only a soldering iron,
- FPGA to implement all that extra hardware, like memory pagers and sound chips.
- Big enough RAM and Flash.
- WiFi access (to load applications into the machine).
- DAC to generate audio (in the future).
- Loadable over USB.
- SD card (maybe, depends on I/O lines).
- Logic Analyzer option (to debug the cartridge in it's initial state, over USB).
In order to implement it, I plan to use:
- Intel MAX10 or CYC10, already soldered in one of these boards (MAX1000, CYC1000). The first one comes in 8k and 16k logic elements, and the last one in 25k. Price range: €22-34, also sold by Arrow. They provide 8 Mb of RAM, and 8 Mb (2Mb in the cyclone) of flash, and come with headers people can solder home. They are exchangeable.
- 74LVC245: to do 3.3V / 5V level conversion, and also to multiplex some signals and reduce pin count. Around 50 cents in sites like digikey.
- ESP32 wroom (or an ESP-8266): I know, is powerful enough to emulate the whole computer, but I will only use it for network access. Out of the box it comes flashed with an "AT" firmware that implements TCP/UDP and TLS. Is easy to extend it with HTTP/FTP and Telnet on the same board. It's retail price is around €6. If WiFi is not desired, it can be skipped.
- A double sided PCB you can manufacture by $5 for 10 units (plus shipping) in China.
So far this is just an idea that covers my personal needs, but I would love to hear suggestions on how to improve it, as I wish to make it an open source project.
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