[Coco] DE1 vs Raspberry PI

[Aaron Wolfe]

If the question is really why the DE1 is a better FPGA, the answer is
simple: The Pi is not an FPGA.

If you mean what's better about a DE1 running CoCo3FPGA vs a Pi running
MESS or some other Coco emulator... It's the same case to be made for
physical coco vs emulator in most ways.  DE1 is instant on, no booting the
host OS.  No setting up or maintaining the host OS.  Connecting real
peripherals is much easier on the DE1 than on an emulator.  The Pi is a bit
different than the usual "emulator on a PC" scenario since the Pi does
offer some I/O, but the path between that and an emulator is quite a bit
more complicated than the path between I/o on the de1 and the coco its
running.   Performance may be a win for the DE1 id that's a factor...
Either can do 2mhz but I doubt the Pi can emulate at 25mhz like the DE1 can.

If you look at what could theoretically happen on a Pi, some of the DE1
advantages become less pronounced.  However if you look at what exists or
is actually being worked on now,  the DE1 has a clear lead if you have any
interest in connecting real hardware.

As someone who has used real cocos, emulators, and the DE1 quits a bit, the
DE1 just "feels" like a coco more than an emulator can.  But that's hard to
quantify.

$0.02

-Aaron

On Tue, Sep 8, 2015, 5:00 PM Richard E. Crislip <rcrislip at neo.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi, I know the question has been answered already, but here goes: Why
> is the DE1 a better CoCoFPGA over the Raspberry PI series? TIA
>
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