[Coco] [Color Computer] Complete Commodore 64 home computer on a single chip

[jdaggett at gate.net]

Boisy

With say about $250,000, one can put a complete Coco 3 hardware in one ASIC. 
That wil get the design done and the first 40 ICs at a cost of about $5000 per chip. 

That will get you 40 parts in 0.18 micron mixed mode 1.8V to 3.3V CMOS. 
Production runs are far cheaper and could bring the die cost down into the $10 to 
$15 range. Packaging adds about $0.05 per pin. 

A cheaper initial cost and low volume way is to do the ASIC in FPGA and then you 
are looking at about $600 to $1000 per chip. The only thing that would not go into 
the FPGA would be the 2 MB of RAM.  


Actual  production runs would yield die costs more in the $10 to $25 range. The you 
can bond the die directly to a PCB  and have a Coco 3 on a PCB about 1.5 inch 
square board. 

james

On 22 Dec 2004 at 9:48, Boisy G. Pitre wrote:

From:           	"Boisy G. Pitre" <boisy at boisypitre.com>
Subject:        	Re: [Coco] [Color Computer] Complete Commodore 64 home 
computer on a
	single chip
Date sent:      	Wed, 22 Dec 2004 09:48:48 -0600
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> 
> On Dec 22, 2004, at 1:23 AM, Neil Morrison wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > FYI
> >
> > "Jeri Ellsworth has squeezed the entire circuitry of a
> > two-decade-old Commodore 64 home computer onto a single chip, which
> > she has tucked neatly into a joystick that connects by a cable to a
> > TV set. Called the Commodore 64--the same as the computer
> > system--her device can run 30 video games, mostly sports, racing and
> > puzzles games from the early 1980s, all without the hassle of
> > changing game cartridges.
> 
> This is certainly becoming a trend, isn't it.  I've noticed lately
> that there is a groundswell of interest in retro-computing and the
> mainstream press is starting to pick up on this phenomenon.  It's no
> surprise that the Commodore 64 is the main beneficiary of this
> attention, since it has the most name recognition and appears to be
> the main computer that everyone thinks of when focusing on the 80s
> home computer age.  I suspect that in the not too distant future,
> other classic home computers like ours will be garnering some national
> media attention as well.
> 
> Actually, her idea of putting a Commodore 64 inside of a joystick
> isn't too far-fetched for a CoCo.  Though I wonder what sales would be
> like of such a device, and if Radio Shack would consider doing
> something like that.
> 
> Boisy
> 
> 
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