First post, by snorg
I've been thinking about making a homebrew retro system in an FPGA.
Either a 16 or 32 bit cpu (really fast 286 or low end 386)
8 bit VGA type graphics, no 3d, IDE for drives
For someone that has a smattering of an engineering background (nothing beyond 100 level analog and digital electronics, and a bit of programming - many moons ago) how difficult would this be? I don't get much joy out of using modern systems, you can bolt together a working system in no more than a few hours.
I realize a 386 may be too comlex, even a 286 type system might be too much. I don't know that I would write all the software as well, was thinking about using an off-the-shelf OS (linux or something) to avoid having to create an OS from scratch.
Is this biting off more than I can chew? I've seen plans and kits for 8 bit systems but most of them don't appeal to me too much. Anyone out there have any thoughts? If this is along the lines of a Really Bad Idea, maybe an 8 bit system would be better (as far as keeping complexity to a manageable level - something that would actually be able to do graphics and multimedia at the level of an oldschool Mac, Amiga or PC, though would be ideal)?