Pikemann_Urge
12-25-2005, 01:54 AM
Now that the iPod has a 240 line display it's pretty much on par with (or slightly better than) a lot of the popular computers of the '80s. We're talking about the Atari ST (240 lines in colour, 480 in mono), C64 (200 lines, colour only) and Amiga (which had a huge variety of resolutions - oh, Amiga, wherefore didst thou die?).
The iPod has way more RAM than most of those old computers could hope for (I think the ST topped out at 4MB). And it has a video-out capability (as did the colour 4G). Okay so now we have an interesting platform to build a cheap, fairly responsive PC that would be fine for simple games and applications. All you need now is some extra hardware (e.g. compact keyboard and optional mouse) and you're set.
So there's the theory. The questions:
- Is it possible to use the real-time video decoder chip for other tasks? Some academics in the USA almost got the Amiga's blitter chip to act as a matrix processor.
- Should it emulate another platform (like the Atari) or should the 'iPod PC' be totally new? Perhaps Atari ST emulation or somethign like that would work better because you won't need to write new software.
- Is it easy to make the on-screen display be exactly duplicated through the video-out line? I'm guessing that it is.
- Would it be easy enough to convert a keyboard (like those used for PDAs) for this purpose? AFAIK it should be feasible.
My guess on performance: the iPod, despite having to emulate something like a 68000, would be at least as fast as the original platform. The amount of interesting games and apps is enough I think to merit this project being taken up by those with the know-how.
FYI there are heaps of ST emulators around, one even in Java. The wealth of ST emulators (as well as C64 ones) provides a useful collection of experience to draw from.
The iPod has way more RAM than most of those old computers could hope for (I think the ST topped out at 4MB). And it has a video-out capability (as did the colour 4G). Okay so now we have an interesting platform to build a cheap, fairly responsive PC that would be fine for simple games and applications. All you need now is some extra hardware (e.g. compact keyboard and optional mouse) and you're set.
So there's the theory. The questions:
- Is it possible to use the real-time video decoder chip for other tasks? Some academics in the USA almost got the Amiga's blitter chip to act as a matrix processor.
- Should it emulate another platform (like the Atari) or should the 'iPod PC' be totally new? Perhaps Atari ST emulation or somethign like that would work better because you won't need to write new software.
- Is it easy to make the on-screen display be exactly duplicated through the video-out line? I'm guessing that it is.
- Would it be easy enough to convert a keyboard (like those used for PDAs) for this purpose? AFAIK it should be feasible.
My guess on performance: the iPod, despite having to emulate something like a 68000, would be at least as fast as the original platform. The amount of interesting games and apps is enough I think to merit this project being taken up by those with the know-how.
FYI there are heaps of ST emulators around, one even in Java. The wealth of ST emulators (as well as C64 ones) provides a useful collection of experience to draw from.