old terminals...

[Ethan Dicks]

On 3/14/07, Vincent Slyngstad <vrs at msn.com> wrote:
> From: "Ethan Dicks"
> > Perhaps this is yet another thing better done with a microcontroller
> > and emulation software...
>
> I was thinking of something more like an FPGA demo board -- mine has
> tons of gates, memory, PS2, VGA, the serial and parallel port are no
> problem, etc.

Looking at an IOB6120, that's clearly no stretch (and the VHDL is
already in there for a VT52 w/PS/2 and VGA ;-)

> If an additional terminal type is needed, it would be some ROM dumps
> and VHDL tweaks.

As long as there's room for a bunch of ROM.  I've seen raster
terminals with 68000s and a *lot* of 28-32-pin ROM chips.

> Hey, if it can do a PDP-8, it ought to be able to emulate a VT100 :-).

Entirely so.  The question I have now is... what would it cost to make
one of these?  If it's under $100, then will have a much larger
audience than if it costs $250.  I spent quite a bit for an IOB6120
bag of parts, and I suppose that board as rigged to be a generic
classic terminal would already be cheaper than 2-3 real classic
terminals, but, as with anything non-essential, the cheaper you can
make it, the larger the potential audience.

Still... sounds like an interesting proposition to me.

-ethan