tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8869371566442567811.post145858857318444994..comments2024-03-27T23:23:05.548-07:00Comments on Rescue 1130: 2014 Pickup of an IBM 1130 System and More: FPGA controller controlling arm on Pertec disk drive, but needed change to cabling for reliabilityCarl Claunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00359841432891565909noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8869371566442567811.post-33082771775608447592015-07-24T17:42:56.793-07:002015-07-24T17:42:56.793-07:00I pick the component to use based on the requireme...I pick the component to use based on the requirements. In addition to the fpga boards, I have various mbed, arduino, raspberry pi, edison and other small devices I would use for controllers.<br /><br />It comes down to how parallel and fast I need the logic to be. The controller for an HP line printer to make it appear to be an IBM 1403 was done on an Arduino because it was pretty easy to handle this sequentially. Same with the controller for the keypunches and paper tape devices. However, with some peripherals it is easier to set up hardware to directly manage each bit of the peripheral independently, and to directly control it in granularity of 20ns or less. <br /><br />Parallelism, speed/responsiveness, input-outputs, functionality,, programmability . . . all factors that go into the mix for which device I pick for the job. <br /><br />I am using fpga as fan-out devices where they may control several different peripherals simultaneously. As long as all the logic fits on the fpga chip, there is no impact at all from adding on additional devices, whereas with a processor of some type the code gets more and more challenging to integrate. Carl Claunchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359841432891565909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8869371566442567811.post-30268878600797452972015-07-24T09:16:04.270-07:002015-07-24T09:16:04.270-07:00Not germane to this post, but to your efforts gene...Not germane to this post, but to your efforts generally: do you know about micropython? It is a very small controller board with lots of inputs (but probably not the 50 or so you need) which runs Python 3.4 on the bare silicon. Watch the intro video at https://micropython.org and I think you will be extremely impressed with the ease of programming, as compared to an fpga.David Cortesihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06760661115101469280noreply@blogger.com