With a little bit assist from an almost twelve-year-long manufacturing run that might be unprecedented at present, the Commodore 64 nonetheless reigns supreme because the best-selling desktop pc mannequin of all time. Due to its recognition and longevity, it’s the first private pc that many individuals owned. Because of this, many people nonetheless have fond reminiscences of the machine and lengthy to see its dark-blue background and light-blue border and textual content that seem on power-up infrequently.
Thankfully, with as many as 17 million items having been bought, there are nonetheless loads of operational Commodore 64s obtainable on secondary markets for fairly affordable costs. The earliest machines are about to show 43 years previous, nevertheless, and which means essential elements just like the VIC-II video chip and the SID sound chip are extra probably than ever to fail. Parts equivalent to these haven’t been manufactured for a really very long time, so retro computing lovers will finally should study to get by with out them.
The FPGA implementation (📷: joachimdraeger)
One choice is software program emulation, however no classic computing purist goes to simply accept that as something like an genuine expertise. Reproducing the {hardware} with an FPGA is another choice, and whereas it will not be precisely the identical as the true silicon, you’d be hard-pressed to identify any variations if the circuit is well-designed. These FPGA-based options can both function drop-in replacements for failed chips, or they’ll emulate all the pc.
GitHub person joachimdraeger has taken the latter strategy, however the venture continues to be a piece in progress so not the entire {hardware} is accessible but. For now the design, known as VIC64-T9K, emulates a 6502 CPU, the VIC-II video chip, and 64KB of RAM. That leaves out the all-important SID chip, and the Advanced Interface Adapter chips that deal with I/O, as an example, besides, what’s included is sufficient to do a complete lot of retro computing.
Hmm… I do not bear in mind a “>” immediate (📷: joachimdraeger)
Maybe these few shortcomings shall be extra excusable contemplating that VIC64-T9K runs on a Sipeed Tang Nano 9K FPGA improvement board, which will be bought for 20-ish {dollars}. Not a nasty solution to get your retro computing repair, huh? And for the reason that board has been designed to output an HDMI video sign, you received’t even should seek for adapters or dig an previous TV out of your attic.
If you wish to strive it out for your self, joachimdraeger has some directions obtainable that can assist you rise up and working. Or in the event you wouldn’t thoughts ready a bit longer for an genuine, Commodore-branded FPGA-based Commodore 64 clone, then you’ll want to take a look at the Commodore 64 Final.
