[Coco] DE1 vs Raspberry PI

[Gustavo Ranaur Schoenaker]

Steve ad Richard (and anyone interested in the difference between FPGA an
Processors)

An FPGA Chip is a chip where you can program it to behave like an arbitrary
logical circuit. You can even draw a microprocessor on it (if it is
powerful enough). A microprocessor is much more limited in possibilities,
specially if you want to emulate very precise timing. You can always write
a program to model another processor (a.k.a. emulator). If your current
processor is much faster than the emulated processor, you can have a good
behaviour, but you'll never have the same feeling.

Actually this question pops up from time to time on the list. FPGA
implementation and microprocessor emulation are very different
technologies. FPGA is more precise, while traditional emulation is normally
cheaper/easier to do/program.

However if you want precise emulation, specially if you have timing issues,
FPGA and similar technologies are the way to go.


On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 11:29 PM, Steve Ostrom <smostrom7 at comcast.net> wrote:

>
> I'm not a hardware guy, but does "Chip" offer any possibilities?
> According to the September 2015 issue of Popular Mechanics, page 30, it's a
> $9 circuit board the size of a credit card, manufactured by Next Thing
> Company.  It runs Debian Linux on a 1Ghz R8 ARM processor.
>
> --- Steve ---
>
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Aaron Wolfe
> Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 4:36 PM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] DE1 vs Raspberry PI
>
>
> 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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