MIT want to make $12 Apple II clone

[Eric Smith]

Zane H. Healy wrote:
> The CPU portion is the part that really had me wondering.  How on earth 
> can you manufacture such a device for only $12.

I don't know how you get it down to under $12, but clearly the CPU has 
to be inside an ASIC, and the cost of the ASIC has to be under $1.  It 
won't particularly affect the cost for the CPU to be a 32-bit RISC 
rather than a 6502.  The RISC might take more transistors than the 6502, 
but the transistors are essentially free, since the ASIC will be 
pad-limited.  The use of an ARM processor specifically might be more 
expensive than a different 32-bit RISC, just because of licensing fees 
to ARM Ltd., but other suitable choices exist.

> As for the software, I believe it has to all be written.  I suspect that 
> no existing Apple II software supports Hindi.

All the more reason to use a modern processor architecture rather than a 
6502.

Eric