On 5/18/2010 3:12 AM, Invisible wrote:

>> I mean... basically to build a custom, application specific, chunk of
>> logic. If it's a customized CPU (er, say a DSP...), then all the more
>> fun.
>>
>> It's tempting to get something like an FPGA test board and poke
>> something into it, though.... but I feel this will take some of the "I
>> built it myself" satisfaction from the project.
>
>  From time to time, people try to build ray tracers using FPGA. And,
> occasionally, they make one that out-performs a software ray tracer
> running on a quad-core Xeon or something. So don't go thinking that just
> because it's FPGA it can't be fast; special-purpose machines can and
> sometimes do out-perform general-purpose machines. ;-)
>

I didn't say anything about the speed. Some of them clock at hundreds of 
MHz... which is why they would excel in applications such as a 
customized DSP.

>> .... I still have to figure out how to pare this sucker down so I can
>> do the big clacking pile of relays version of it ;)
>
> Uh, yeah. Good luck with that.
>
> You know that the first computers filled entire buildings, right? ;-)

Right. Which is why it must be as simple as possible, because I don't 
need to dedicate a 20'x24' room to the thing ;) Thankfully memory is 
nice and solid-state, nowadays!, no need for ferrite cores, drums, relay 
latches or any of that nonesense.

Of course, the relay-based machine may be simplified to the point where 
it can't do anything but play tic-tac-toe...

more than space, my biggest concern is power usage. I need to be able to 
operate off of a 15-amp breaker without tripping the thing. (That's 15a 
@120v, btw... not 240v!



-- 
~Mike

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