~
I once dove into the assembly space with a MIPS processor, and took great joy in talking directly to the CPU.... that was until I learned that assembly itself is not a machine language but an *interpreted* one, because newer CPUs now perform their own optimisations in the hardware space!
After that I grew listless and world weary, and I closed the curtains in the basement and listened to depressing 80s music.
I mean (first, lol) Assembly always did go through an assembler and then made into machine language, and then *that* language went on to do the specific hardware tasks, but if you mean individual types of CPU's, themselves, have their own (*small*) ways of processing *that*, then I suppose I could see what you mean. Apple M1/M2 chips likely do something like that.
I also DO get confused when reading about AL (hell, I *just* started reading up on it a couple weeks ago to the extent of taking notes), and just HOW the CPU *does* all these instructions. It's definitely fun to learn!
Just in case, I have a playlist pre-made of The Smiths, Morrissey, and I'm sure I'll find a band or two to toss in in case I become disenchanted for good measure ;)
3:30 AM here, and I'll take a coffee, ~bartender! Thanks!
How about a Commander X16 or MSX3? The MEGA65 is too expensive.
ah, and ~contrarian, the Commander X16 was just released today (or the finalizations of the prototype are starting). Woot!
I joined that forum to see it all come together :)
May go that route, but who knows
I've considered the Commander X16, and just heard of MEGA65 just today from Perifractic. I didn't see the price of the MEGA65, though, but I'd imagine expensive when he said prototype copies from back when sold for ~$50K on eBay. Wild.
Just something *about* the Maximite that I like. Initially I wanted the first model, monochrome only, but they are likely not making new models of that, and even the Color Maximite 2 seems to be bit difficult to find in stock. That's why I'd get the Deluxe.
:)
https://rc2014.co.uk/
Ah, hadn't seen that site before. Thank you :)
I went and checked the status of the Commander X16 real fast, and I see that as of Dec 2021, the COVID-induced chip shortage delayed the project by (estimated) 12 months, so I am likely to rule that out for the "init commit" (retro computing) project I am doing.
There's a guy on Write.as that is doing a lot of Z80 stuff, and something he shared reminded me of the possibility of me possibly doing a "breadboard" type of machine (board building w/o the need for soldering), and I'd like to go that route as I am not solder-ready, at the moment. Definitely a thing I will get into, but I sort of want to get the ball rolling on an initial hardware/software project and get the proper peripherals before I get into a "build".
I bookmarked the rc2014 site, though, so thank you again :)
~bartender, another hot coffee for me! Thank you much!