Interesting, but i dislike the fact that they chose SID chips. Are they gonna canibalize C64's to get the SID's? Did they get someone to produce SID's for them? I like the video chip, brings a leg up on what they are improving about what an 8 bit computer was able to do, so using SID's is meh... Would be much more interesting to use Yamaha OPL2's instead. Dual OPL2's would be extremely nice.

No the SID chip is optional, from my understanding it makes use of another chip also for sound if you don't want to use SID. Personally I have 2 dead commodore 64 computers so this is ideal.

Or just get a chameleon and emulate some different systems.
http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Chameleon

King_Corduroy wrote:

No the SID chip is optional, from my understanding it makes use of another chip also for sound if you don't want to use SID. Personally I have 2 dead commodore 64 computers so this is ideal.

Where did ou see that? Cause on their website its between dual 6581's or dual 8580's. Both are SID's, the 8580 being the latest revision if i remember correctly.

@Harekiet
I think you completely miss the point...
Besides why would you emulate when you could have real hardware? This is a custom 8 bit machine being manufactured NOW, in 2014! I mean doesn't that sound interesting in the least? This is NOT a C64 its a completely different beast, it's MUCH more powerful. It's a machine that takes the best of all the machines of the 80's and puts it all together into a dream 8 bit home computer. They are writing programs for this now from scratch and porting old programs too. I just think it's really cool.

@Carlostex
Well before the man had released it I spoke to him briefly and he said you could use the SID chips which I assumed meant there was another option. Besides I thought I read somewhere on the forums about there being another chip option.

Well an FPGA is real hardware with the added benefit that you can program it to run different systems or with a fast enough one you can just run older systems at much higher rates. Guess it's mostly also just the high price of the thing and then only ending up with a limited system that will most likely not get much development.

It is expensive, I'll give you that one. 🤣

Beside the questionable choice for SIDs which are not in production anymore, I don't see a 8 bit CPU in the Kiwi computer. The 68K is a 16/32 bit CPU, even if the bus gets crippled to 8 bit.

King_Corduroy wrote:

Have you guys seen this yet? I really want one of these. It's an 8 bit computer built with the idea that it could have existed i […]
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Have you guys seen this yet? I really want one of these. It's an 8 bit computer built with the idea that it could have existed in the 80's but has the benefits of some modern advances such as USB, PS/2 ports, Flash card storage, 3.5" diskette drive and it's WAAAAAY more reliable than a lot of the home computers from the 80's (namely the C64 which is infinitely finicky). Speaking of the C64 you can use DUAL SID CHIPS in it for your sound generator. 😁
It's a kit computer that can be ordered fully assembled or as a DIY project. It costs 300$ but it seems to be completely open source design so you could probably build one yourself from scratch.

For more specific info I'll redirect you to the home page since I'll probably remember the specs wrong. 😜
https://www.ist-schlau.de/

To so the computer in action go to the creators youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5nL9qhGkg5Uo2V1WwuODJg

I'm probably going to buy one of these bad boys in the future so I figured why not see if some of you guys are interested too. 😀

In my opinion, this computer could have only existed in an alternate reality 1980s where someone was crazy enough to combine an 8-bit CPU with comparatively beastly amounts of speed and RAM. Now, a 16 or 32-bit CPU with those specs was quite possible in this reality.

Regardless of whether or not it "Could have existed in the 80's", it didn't, so in my humble opinion you might as well just emulate. There's a modern SID replacement - not a perfect reproduction from what I read, but perhaps a good fit for this thing.

I like that people create these things but while original 8 bit machines are still available then it's hard to image that there's much of a market.

Well this is neat and all, but I'm not sure I'd spend $300 on this. I suppose if I was going to do my own homebrew PC I'd rather design it myself.

It's not an 8-bit machine. the 68008 is really just a 68000 with an 8-bit data path, kind of like the difference between an 8088 and an 8086.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

It's not an 8-bit machine. the 68008 is really just a 68000 with an 8-bit data path, kind of like the difference between an 8088 and an 8086.

Same CPU as used in the Sinclair QL.

I know. The 68000 and 68008 are really 32-bit CPUs at their core, but with smaller data paths.

elianda wrote:

Beside the questionable choice for SIDs which are not in production anymore, I don't see a 8 bit CPU in the Kiwi computer. The 68K is a 16/32 bit CPU, even if the bus gets crippled to 8 bit.

Precisely, just like the 8088 is not an 8bit CPU despite the external bus was 8 bit, to simplify and lower the cost of components on the motherboards.

🤣 You guys run right past the interesting parts and always immediately start splitting hairs. 🤣

I, for one, would be willing to make sacrifices for an 8-bit computer with a "modern" 3.5 inch floppy drive. My Commodore 64 is gathering dust because the cassette player doesn't work and the only floppy drives for it that work are quite expensive around here.

There is the SD2IEC thingy... but it infuriates me how much that thing costs considering it's an ugly, tiny circuit board with wires coming out of it.

So a computer which is retro but at the same time as easily usable as a fairly modern PC? Sounds awesome to me...

Yasashii wrote:

I, for one, would be willing to make sacrifices for an 8-bit computer with a "modern" 1.44 inch floppy drive. My Commodore 64 is gathering dust because the cassette player doesn't work and the only floppy drives for it that work are quite expensive around here.

There is the SD2IEC thingy... but it infuriates me how much that thing costs considering it's an ugly, tiny circuit board with wires coming out of it.

So a computer which is retro but at the same time as easily usable as a fairly modern PC? Sounds awesome to me...

I know it's expensive, and it's not exactly a thing of beauty either, but the 1541 Ultimate solves the C64 disk problem perfectly. I love mine!

http://www.1541ultimate.net/

That thing is too rich for me as well, at the moment X_X.