working scale models (was Re: (no subject))

[Chuck Guzis]

On 31 Jul 2007 at 14:36, Ethan Dicks wrote:

> Hmm... A real IMSAI is what, 10.5" tall, 19" wide, and about 24"-36"
> deep?  That sounds difficult to reproduce at 1/12th scale, but it
> might be possible to replicate an IMSAI front panel with fiber optics,
> run them under the floor of the doll house to a hidden Z-80 board
> (that could still be done with a lot of SMT to make it small).

Golly, the microprocessors they're coming out with nowadays would be 
pretty much to scale on a chip basis.  Consider, for example, the ST  
ST/7 MPUs in TFBGA packaging--what, 4mm square?  With an instruction 
set similar to a 6502, you should come close to building a KIM-1 to 
scale--if only you could find a small-enough display and keypad...

Instead of doing a PDP-8 on an FPGA, you might as well emulate one in 
software on one of the available MCUs.  Think of what you could do 
with, say, a Parallax Propeller or even one of the ARM9 chips...

Cheers,
Chuck