Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!vsi1!daver!dlr
From: dlr@daver.UUCP (Dave Rand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k
Subject: Re: do it yourself project?
Message-ID: <7465@daver.UUCP>
Date: 12 Nov 88 19:15:05 GMT
References: <1268@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU> <2644@sultra.UUCP>
Reply-To: dlr@daver.UUCP (Dave Rand)
Organization: Association for the Prevention of Polar Bears and Kangaroos
Lines: 39

In article <2644@sultra.UUCP> dtynan@sultra.UUCP (Der Tynan) writes:
>This isn't a bad idea either.  The data I have received so far (Thanks to
>Steve Ligett) says that a bare PC board would cost ~$200 (including setup)
>if we could get 20 people interested.  I still can't decide between a
>"plug-in" card, and a complete motherboard replacement.  I guess I'm
>currently favoring the motherboard idea.
I don't think you can blow a full PC-Motherboard board for $200. A
PC Plug-in would be possible to do for that price, or even less.

>> The first place to start is with a real design and I have only
>> heard D. Rand offer one, so far.
>
>Yeah, Dave how about some pricing (preliminary or otherwise) info?

The PD-32 design is free. It has been published in Micro-C, and
reprints are available from them.

The software is not free :-(

You can get the hardware together for about $200, without PCB. The
expensive bit is the RAMS. You can run in 1 Meg, and that would
cost (roughly) $400. Another Meg - another $400.

Fully assembled and tested boards were available from Definicon, but
I'm not sure if they are any longer.

The Zaiaz offer was probably one of the best deals to come along in
a long time for 32k - how about checking them out again?

A few last questions - do people _really_ want a full Unix environment?
How much can you afford for this? Do you just want a C compiler, assembler,
debugger, etc. that runs on (and for) a 32k processor? How much can
you afford for this? (These are not idle questions...)

Disclaimer: These are all personal opinions.

-- 
Dave Rand
{pyramid|hoptoad|sun|vsi1}!daver!dlr