Create a VAX CPU with FPGA?

[9000 VAX]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:21:32 -0500, Patrick Finnegan
<pat at computer-refuge.org> wrote:
> Curt @ Atari Museum declared on Thursday 03 March 2005 11:47 pm:
> > I personally would rather see some more hobbyist work on PCI Qbus
> > and/or Unibus cards, the current commercial ones run $2500-$3000 and
> > it would be GREAT to run SimH and have access to all the drives, tape
> > systems and so forth directly with something more like $250-$500 vs
> > the $2500-$3000 cards.
> 
> I've considered this before, and the PCI part seems to be a sizable
> stubling block.

I was scared away by PCI too. Their are PLX PCI chipsets, and FPGA PCI
cores but you still need to read the PCI protocol.

> 
> An ISA card might be an easier way to start off.  I've got access to a
> fair range of machines with ISA slots, from IBM 5150 PCs to PIII
> desktops and IBM RS/6000s to DEC Alphas.

ISA is easier but less attractive, because people who are after PCI
QBUS are after the speed of newer CPU's.

vax, 9000

> 
> Hmm, a ISA->QBUS adapter in an Alpha, running SIMH and talking to an
> RL02.  This sounds like fun. :)  Or hell, port the NetBSD/vax RL02
> driver (after fixing it so it actually worked again) to NetBSD/Alpha (or
> Linux/Alpha if one was so inclined). :)
> 
> Pat
> --
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