Back in the 1979 Jay Miner implemented that exact solution (Atari 8bit line) through the ANTIC chip which it came with its own set of instructions. In essence it was a second custom cpu designed to produce graphics and feed them to the video chip (CTIA/GTIA). This shows how much ahead Miner's ideas were!

@Cybergorf

10 ай бұрын

He later did it again with the "Copper" for the Amiga - reducing the instruction set to only 3 types: move a value to a register, wait for a position on screen and a loop instruction. these little programs, called "copper lists" run independent of the CPU and typically repeat itself for every screen (50/60 times per second)

@markwiygul6356

10 ай бұрын

And that's how the Atari 130XE could address up to 128KB of memory: ANTIC addressed 64K and the 6502C addressed 64K. Programming could only use the ANTIC's memory by programing memory banks, swapping them to the 6502C when it was needed. Atari Writer Plus could use the extra memory, so could XE-Term, a modem program, and DO 2.5 could use it as a RAM-Disk. Otherwise, since the 130XE was the final advance forward for the 8bit line, games couldn't utilize it, nor most of other software which was written for compatibility for the entire line, without any bonuses for the 130XE

@old_liquid

9 ай бұрын

Its also alike Nintendo and Sega did with their graphics addons for SNES/MD cartridges. Nintendo used ARM cpu for graphics and Sega used Samsung CPU.

@bobjones-ey5gl

9 ай бұрын

@@Cybergorf What was "Copper" ? was it part of Agnus ? along with the blitter ?

@bangerbangerbro

9 ай бұрын

@@old_liquid Just because it was designed by a guy in Cambridge doesn't make it ARM, however it was almost certainly inspired by it, more basic though, evolved from his Konix DSP probably, as that is where Argonaut recruited him from (Ben Cheese).

My favourite kind of vintage computer video - about a lesser known home computer!!

Fujitsu Micro 7 was my first computer science teacher. At age 14 I've learned BASIC programming with this 8-bit PC at it's what've changed my whole life for good. I never get any interest in a thing of electronics before that. At my school the math division had bought a big set of Fujitsu Micro 7/8 and initiated application for computer science and BASIC programming course. I thought it sounds cool and just wanted to impress friends so I applied. In the class I just followed the tutor blindly without any exact idea what were these for. One day I picked the BASIC tutorial sheets for killing time reading and WHAM I don't know how but I got the damn whole idea how the programming of that time worked. Then my life from that moment on is programming.

The FM-7 had a really excellent version of the OS-9 operating system as well (multi-user, multi-tasking, based loosely on Unix), like the Dragon 64 and Coco 1/2/3's had. And it used the dual CPU as well, which would be worth taking a look at if you can get a copy onto it.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

Yes, absolutely! I definitely want to check that out as soon as I get some good way to load programs and the OS into the machine. Should be really interesting and I've been meaning to check it out ever since I learn about it on the Dragon.

@wcarlin

9 ай бұрын

If it doesn't have one already, the FM-7 needs a native DriveWire client so it can boot OS-9 via serial. One of the tiny clients, like you load from cassette on the CoCo.

@mikafoxx2717

4 ай бұрын

OS-9 is honestly sad, such a good operating system on such a dead-end system. At least they had much better basic than Commodore ever did, and they made it a lot more capable in the coco3. The uncommon processor made it hard to ever port to anything else so it kind of died with the Coco's, which never got the popularity of the original z80 trs-80's, nor the IBM clone Tandy 1000.

@CurtisBoyle

4 ай бұрын

@@mikafoxx2717 - OS-9 was later available for the Motorola 680x0 series (nicknamed OSK), and then OS-9000 was multi-platform (Intel x86, Motorola 680x0, DEC Alpha, PowerPC, etc.). But it was never marketed as a home platform (with the except of Tandy and the Coco line), which is too bad. It was meant more for the industrial market. Amiga almost used it as their OS (it had most of the things that they wanted - pre-emptive multi-tasking, small memory footprint, etc. but they had no GUI ready, so Microware lost out). While I would agree with you that the Tandy 1000 line eventually outsold the Coco, I would disagree that it outsold the Z80 based machines - even Tandy themselves for years in the 1980's stated that the Coco was it's best seller. They had sold over 500,000 Coco 1's alone by the summer of 1983, and between all 3 models it sold at least 4 million units.

Damn, ancient history but a schoolmate and I designed a dual Z80 system back when the Spectrum was still being sold, our idea was one CPU with ROM and 64K RAM for code, the other CPU for graphics and both sharing an expandable block of RAM that paged in and out on demand so the main CPU could upload new graphics data or code for the second CPU. Lost touch with him after I left school but, if you're out there Ben M, say hi...

@guaposneeze

10 ай бұрын

At one point, Apple had a weird microkernel OS that was meant to be licensed to NUBUS card vendors making things like video cards out of CPU's that could run a semi-normal OS under the hood. Basically this exact idea, just scaled up to the late 80's.

@Cybergorf

10 ай бұрын

@@guaposneeze en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/ROSE Apple put a 68000 on these NUBUS dev boards running A/ROSE - a full preemptive multitasking realtime kernel, that was way more advanced than the OS of the Macintosh II these cards plugged into.

@remaincalm2

10 ай бұрын

But would it have solved the colour clash issue? ;-)

The games for the FM-7 series were out of this world compared to the stuff the United States and Europe had. The Japanese really were far ahead in gaming back then.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

Any particular games you would recommend I check out?

@TheMalMeninga

10 ай бұрын

@@NoelsRetroLab Not OP but I played Galaga and Silpheed on an FM-7 many years ago, and they were quite good for the time.

@kitsuneneko2567

10 ай бұрын

They still are in some ways. Especially if you like things that jiggle.

@another3997

10 ай бұрын

Care to share any info, sources, reviews so we can look for ourselves? There's not a lot of info out there. But if the computer was as good a games machine as you say, why did it fail in Spain, and why is it seemingly never mentioned alongside other popular Japanese micros? In 1979 Atari launched their 8 bit computers, far ahead of anything the Japanese (or anyone else) had at the time, at least in the home computer market. 3 years is a long time in which to catch up.

@belstar1128

9 ай бұрын

@@kitsuneneko2567 I think American and west european games where on par with japanese games from 1995 to 2015 .but now western games are going down hill again

I've got three of these machines and they are superb!

@deang5622

10 ай бұрын

3 handed mutant?

@null7936

9 ай бұрын

WoW a 6 cores 8 bit machine ... Maybe Fermilab, Darpa, NASA who knows ? ( ;

This is why this is the best retro-computing channel on KZread, and why the Japanese made many of the best microcomputers of the 80s.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

Wow, thank you so much! That means tons coming from you! 😃

@WacKEDmaN

10 ай бұрын

"all the best stuff is made in Japan!"

@another3997

10 ай бұрын

That's a bold claim, considering the relative lack of impact Japanese micros had on the home markets outside of Japan. Especially this particular micro, which seems to have died a quick death just after birth. And judging by the lack of information out there, apparently nobody even turned up for it's funeral. Interesting machine? Yes, definitely. A great machine? With only 8 colours and a generic AY sound chip? Not so sure.

@manicdataminer

10 ай бұрын

Well, there is one... no, two modern 8-bit computers with two... no, three CPUs... I keep forgetting their names... At the tip of my tongue... :-)

@thebyteattic

10 ай бұрын

@@manicdataminer 🤣

When I saw the title I assumed it was the Fujitsu FM-7. I was surprised as I had never heard of the Secoinsa. It was actually a group of FM-7 enthusiasts that had replaced the main 6809 with a 6309 that discovered the hidden mode of the 6309 CPU IIRC - I may be remembering wrong. It has been decades since I used one of those but I seem to recall the second CPU was clocked by inverting the clock signals that went to the main CPU so there could never be any contention and neither had to wait to access the bus. Running OS-9 Level 2 on that thing was a dream - to me it was a better Unix than Unix.

It's rare to see an 80s computer i haven't heard of at this point. Nice video and looking forward to more next year when you can get your hands on it again.

Secoinsa !!!. More than 30 years without hearing the name... Wowwww

mcleod_ideafix here! Me alegro de volver a verte. Precisamente, el Secoinsa FM-7 lo conocemos un poco en mi departamento. Debo tener 2 o 3 de ellos en mi despacho. Cuando vuelva a la universidad en septiembre, miraré de los que tengo, uno que viene con su caja y todo, a ver si incluye alguna documentación. Por otra parte, preguntaré a mis jefes, los más antiguos del lugar, por si ellos supieran de documentación técnica que pudiera estar guardada desde hace 30 años o más en alguno de los armarios del seminario del departamento. Saludos!

The 6809 is a awesome cpu.. and has proved itself awesome for graphics in this system and some arcade boards ( splatterhouse ) you have a great looking machine there !

@douro20

9 ай бұрын

The Namco System 1 has THREE 6809s. One of the sub CPUs ran the tile engine and another ran the sound. One of the DMAs on the sound 6809 is actually tied in to the FM DAC to allow for digitized sound playback; it's the first time I've seen anyone use the FM synth DAC in this manner.

@akakakakakak3084

9 ай бұрын

6809 is the most powerful 8 bits microprocessor.

Hi Noel! Very cool video -- what an advanced device and a neat history! If the government had supported it, sure seems like it could have worked out, a la UK microcomputing industry (Tho of course we have the example of the NABU here in Canada which failed even with support). Anyway, I don't know if it's been mentioned -- the youtuber Usagi Electric said in a recent video that his day job is technical translation of japanese to english, and he's a vintage computer guy, so perhaps he might be of help if there are remaining translation challenges? No idea, just thought I'd mention it! Cheers and thank you for the wonderful content!

seriously, they should have done this with the Commodore C128 which also had two CPUs (a 6510 and a Z80). We all know well what the CPU is capable from scene demos (it just doesn't leave any computing power left for anything else).

@dans.8198

10 ай бұрын

Unfortunately, on the C128 the 6502 and Z80 shared the same bus and RAM. Therefore one of the CPU must be halted for the other to work without conflicts. The Z80 on the C128 was only meant to run CP/M. However, the C128 also had an extra video controller chip (VDC) with its own separate RAM and interesting functions including blitter, but not powerful enough to be used for games and demos.

@Cybergorf

10 ай бұрын

@@dans.8198 You are wrong about the VDC`s demo capabilities: kzread.info/dash/bejne/hGyWp8mRZtGTgbA.html For the "parallel" use of both CPUs: The Version of CP/M for the C128 moved many things to the 6502 to free up memory for the z80 side of things. So while really just one professor could operate at a time this gave this special CP/M version about 50KB for programs.

@MrCenturion13

10 ай бұрын

3 CPUs, not 2. 64 chip, 128 chip and a Z80 chip.

@dans.8198

10 ай бұрын

@@MrCenturion13 The “64” chip (MOS 8502) was the same as the “128” chip.

@mldalex

9 ай бұрын

the z80 was exclusively there just for the cp/m mode

You actually _can_ write custom programs for the SUB-CPU, there’s a hidden way to do it: the name of the programmer who wrote the SUB ROM “YAMAUCHI” must appear at a certain place in memory to make it work.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

That's great to hear. I'm going to have to track that down for the next video on the FM-7!

Wow! That's quite a beast of a machine. It's always a pleasure to watch your videos, and I hope you have lots of fun doing the next one. The FM-7 seems like such an interesting architecture. Small surprise that this beastie didn't fit in your suitcase. (You always have such cool toys!)

Nice one Noel it's always interesting to see new and different retro equipment and you do it so well thanks

Love this computer - its what inspired me to try and create my own design with a dedicated graphics CPU

@julianbrown1331

10 ай бұрын

Just a small detail to point out - the BBC micro could do the same trick using the TUBE interface. If you want to see a side-by-side comparison, try running Elite in single processor mode and the same game in TUBE mode with a second 6502. The performance differences are amazing

I have seen some consoles and computers use 2 cpus, one as the main and the second one for sound or something else but never seen a computer with a cpu that acts as a gpu. Pretty nice!

@deang5622

10 ай бұрын

Atari did it with their range of computers: 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL.

Thank you, Noel! Never heard about this interesting box. Always looking forward to your excellent videos :)

The architecture reminds me of the BBC Micro with its IO processor (the BBC micro 6502 itself) handling the video/IO, and a second processor (via the BBC Tube interface) running the application. This was the original idea by Acorn for the Proton (BBC prototype). You can get now lots of co-processors for the BBC with the Raspberry PI.

@bobjones-ey5gl

9 ай бұрын

Acorn BBC - Econet GOOD TIMES - although ELITE (Braben & Bell) was almost unplayable (way to fast) if your (primary school) Beeb had a second 6502 processor connected via the Tube interface.

This is awesome - brilliant stuff. The technical detail, editing and production is quality.

@NoelsRetroLab

8 ай бұрын

Much appreciated!

This was a great episode!!! (as usual) Thank you!

What an awesome machine! I look forward to seeing it going through it's paces.

Bit blitting is the Single most powerful feature on 80s home computers. The REU on the C64 was often just used to move data around many times faster than the cpu could.

2 6809s!!! That gives it the power of the original Fairlight CMI.

I managed to upload the full tape for Mappy for the FM-7 a few years ago from a recording of a bad-conditioned tape. I cleaned it up and removed any excess noise that could affect the loading process. Enjoy! kzread.info/dash/bejne/dHqt1puNfrCfk9Y.html

Thanks for sharing this! I've never heard of the Secoinsa FM-7.

Great job, Noel. Thanks fron Spain!!

You said in the Commodore 64 DIN socket pin 3 carries sound so you could use that cable for the video out, but all 3 of the DIN connectors you showed also have sound on pin 3, you could do the same for any of the cables for those machines.

That's neat! I had a similar idea for a hobbyist 8-bit computer I was floating around of using a second CPU as a GPU. I'd really love to see people write software that takes that kind of architecture to its limits.

I'm blown away you don't have more subscribers. I hope you're doing well with this endeavor? Your production quality is pretty darn solid

What an amazing find! Thanks Noel!

There's also the larger FM-77 which has similar specs but is a full-fledged desktop system with two floppy drives and and the FM-77AV which has a larger pixel buffer allowing it to display up to 4096 colours at 320x200, and FM sound (although a bit limited in that regard).

I was going to offer to translate a few lines at a time, but it looks like you've got that covered.

Nice video, thanks for sharing, well done :)

what an absolute monster 8bit!.. the architecture is so unique and seems quite powerful..especially for a machine that was going into schools...im interested to see more about this machine... it would be interesting to see if you could add some new routines to the 'gpu' rom, or even optimise the routines ...i guess with all the extra gpu ram, and SRAM blocks.. this had no issue with the 64K tax in the spanish market!

This machine is a beauty! Loved the architecture. Thanks for bringing this up to us!

@raven4k998

10 ай бұрын

this machine is like having a dual cpu amd 5950x system but one of those 5950x cpus does graphics only it's crazy

Quite an interesting machine, that I hadn't seen much on, thank you.

Nice video signal conversion setup!

Nice vid! I remember another spanish market adaptation, done by Investronica, resulting on the Spectrum + (later also sold outside of Spain). The few advantages on the classic speccy were overshadowed by some incompatibility issues.

Very interesting computer indeed, I'd love to see more about this machine, MSX too has a separate VDP so that the Z80 can delegate graphics operations to it, from the other-hand this made the communication between the cpu and the VDP is slower (as I read) Thanks Noel!

FM-7's main system can be switched to various CPUs, The expansion slot on the right is for that. MAIN(6809.,6309, Z80, 8088, etc…) + SUB(6809) This slot is also used to connect FM-X (MSX), Control MSX display and sound from FM-7.

That computer is a rebranded version of the Fujitsu FM-7. There is also an FM-8 computer that, despite its name, it was released *before* the FM-7. The FM-8 was similar, but it also supports Bubble Memory. I would recommend you to get one of these as it is very interesting.

@frioglobal

9 ай бұрын

The FM-8 was really outstanding. Two CPUs, built like a tank and supporting solid-state non-volatile memory cartridges, really something special!

Hi Ya & best wishes. Thanks for work. Be Happy. Sevastopol/Crimea.

Seen a couple of FM-7's at Dragon Meets as the CCH in Cambridge (they were allowed as they are 6809 based). As such it made me smile to see an advert for the Dragon 200 in the magazine you were leafing through! 😊

There's actually a modern 8 bit z80 computer with two cpus. It's called the Agon Light. The main chip is a z80, and the graphics processor is an esp32.

need a larger suitcase! Looking forward to more about this, pretty interesting indeed!

As a 90s collector of the spanish computer encyclopedia “Mi Computer” (yes it was spelled like that), I knew about the Secoinsa Computers even though I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina and still do. Thanks for the video Noel!

The Nintendo 64 (and most SGI's that it was based on) were similar in this aspect, sort of. The graphics was another MIPS cpu, but basically run more like a microcontroller with microcode that controlled the (mostly) fixed graphics pipeline. The main CPU did the geometry, and the second did all the rendering with passed parameters. The second did have things like 4k of graphics cache on die, but it was indeed a second processor with code and cache built in. Remember that SGI created OpenGL.. basically a way of abstracting draw instructions that the microcode in the graphics CPU would interpret into it's own instructions. Very few games actually licenced the ability to change the microcode so it was usually a fixed pipeline in essence, but modifying it would be like adding features to OpenGL, like adding a posterization layer or such.

Thanks for your mention about my projects

Wowowowowow! I just love this architecture :o

You've hit retro gold. Very interesting device.

My ancient no-name Taiwan Apple II+ clone had two CPUs. 6502 and Z80. Each one worked fully but there was basically no software other than a demo disk which could run both CPUs simultaneously.

Solid! Top KEK! Peace be with you.

If you added a second processor to a BBC Micro via the Tube interface then the Beeb itself was effectively relegated to an IO processor.

@zh84

10 ай бұрын

We had a BBC in our school with a "Z80 second processor" so that it could run CP/M.

@richardgodivala4680

9 ай бұрын

Back in the day, I had a 65C102 co pro (similar instruction set, but higher clock speed), and a 80186, which was an Intel chip, and could run DOS and GEM. I never had the Z80, or 32016 (expensive research kit) - and there were others. Now, you can get a Raspberry Pi Co Processor, which can emulate any of the original ones, and can run in native mode. (You can also use the HDMI output on the Pi, but that kind of misses the point...) I have a BBC Master with a Pi CoPro, a Pi 1Mhz Bus Disk emulator, and a Pi Econet Hub/Bridge ... kind of like in Star Trek, where the ancient Voyager craft has all the new kit added to it to make it keep running, but in the core, it's still the original hardware and programming....

That was great! Subscribed! Great presentation and explanation. Thank you for your time! 🍻🌎❤️🌮🎶🖥️

Interesting video. If only the 'hmm Spectrum' had influenced world computing like the FM7 did. ROFLMAO.

NEC PC-8801(A/B/mk2AR) is similar, but, 2nd CPU used for Disk control.

I hope you get to tear down an FM-77 AV! (Same dual 6809's, but 4096 colors! Also, a genlock, I think.)

I do wish modern computers are like this.

OK. Now I have an idea. BBC Micro/Master. An expansion cart containing a second 6502-like processor with the command buffer, a program buffer also an output command buffer and matching video RAM. Sadly only the CPU has access to the _real_ video RAM so it won't be quite as fast need you still have to halt the main CPU and copy completed screen data across to main RAM, but augmented with programmable "shaders" you could do some really advanced stuff. Or maybe even just add your own video out port from the cartridge. Or, just like the old 3dfx accelerators, you combine the analogue output of the 2D and 3D cards with a pass through cable.

Awesome video! It's such an unusual system. You should have no issues taking a computer like that through airport security - especially since it doesn't have batteries. I've packed many slightly weird things like electronic drum machines in carry-on bags and have never had any trouble. As long as an item isn't explicitly on a prohibited list you should be good.

The Fujitsu FM-8/7/77 series were the Radio Shack/Tandy CoCo machines they should have built if they had been genuinely serious about taking on Atari, Commodore, Osborne, Timex-Sinclair, the Coleco Adam, and Apple in the home computer space, well, minus the kanji ROM. In the same vein, the FM TOWNS was the high-feature big btrother the Tandy 1000 and 2000 desperately needed to stay competitive in the PC Clone market, especially if they could have commisioned "Second Party" developers to port games, graphics productivity, and language compilers to support the included graphics chipset.

In Portugal whe had the project minerva on public schools in 90's to introduce computers on hi schools. It was a mainly 8088 and 286 processors based computers like PHILIPS and UNiSYS respetible.

Cool videos. Thank you.

The FM-7 is awesome, but weirdly named. It's a stripped down version of the FM-8. You might be more familiar with the 90s sequel: FM Towns, which even had a console version: FM Towns Marty.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

Yeah, definitely weirdly named. I did look up the whole FM family tree on Wikipedia and I had heard of the names very vaguely, but I never got to experience the FM Towns or the Marty (other than it was a music setting in Monkey Island).

@NathanChisholm041

8 ай бұрын

@@NoelsRetroLab Yamaha made a FM-7 synth made famous for 80s music.

Very interesting and informative.

I wish we could have a way to build such old computers nowadays, just in case if civilization breaks down and we'd have to restart with more simple technology.

I see you are here in Spain for the summer and your lab is still all set up and complete, instead of having had some of the equipment shipped to the US, That's really quite surprising.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

A lot of the equipment needs 220V to function. And besides, I wanted to have the basics to be able to work there a couple months out of the year.

13:56: The 60Hz-ness and the 12V pin on the DIN connector (13:06) lead me to suspect this probably originally shipped with a custom CRT that was powered from the computer. Kind of like Amstrad used to do it.

This video seems cool 😎

@Ty-Jack

10 ай бұрын

This video seems cool Iike you (it a complement If you thought otherwise)

I got captivated by this machine!!!! 8bit with async modern techniques!!!!! Impresionante!

Interesting that this computer would use an actual CPU as a graphics processor rather than something hardwired, which while much less flexible, would be WAY faster and also much cheaper than the complicated hardware we see here, with RAM, ROM and even SRAM and those big gate arrays for interfacing everything. There were 8-bit systems with blitters quite early on, the Williams hardware which ran Robotron 2084 for example used two custom blitters to draw all the stuff flying around the screen (up to 80 objects/frame drawn - way too much to do in software at the time.) The hardware could do a theoretical 1MB/s, and clocked in at 910kB/s when actually running the game - I assume the game either isn't maxing out the hardware, or some performance is lost in overhead while writing to the blitters' registers.

Another great video and what a beautiful motherboard this is! Routing it must have been an interesting puzzle to solve, even more if that was done by hand. Do you happen to know how many layers that PCB has?

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

Thanks! I don't know how many layers it has, but it has to be more than 2 for sure.

Wow i didn't know this system came out outside of japan i still learn more about retro computers all the time.

Hola! - A new channel to me, thanks to the algorithm. I will be watching more, definitely. I used to work for Fujitsu in the UK. Avionics though, rather than computers.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

Awesome. Welcome aboard!

@wirebrushofenlightenment1545

10 ай бұрын

@@NoelsRetroLab Aboard for the voyage with pleasure, Captain! I can't wait to see where we will be going!

What an interesting architecture!

I recognized Quazar's Funky Stars right away, but I did not expect a 3 voice remix.

What an interesting architecture. I have to admit while I was aware of the FM-7I payed it no attention because I assumed it was just another Japanese 8-bit and as I don't know the language why bother? Thanks for educating me.

Actually the system diagram does explain what that extra 2k rom is. CRT 10k ROM MB8364 MB8516(CG) So that block is actually two ROMs, 64kbit/8kbyte and 16kbit/2kbyte. The second ROM being labeled as CG confirms what I suspected, it's a Character Generator ROM, or set of bitmaps for letters and numbers to be displayed on screen.

@NoelsRetroLab

10 ай бұрын

Oh that makes a lot of sense! Thanks.

Many home computers and arcades in the '80s had a CPU acting as GPU and SPU

The first thing that came to mind when I saw the title was the Soviet Elektronika UKNC, which has two of those Soviet NC-architecture CPUs that are not PDP-11 clones on chips but are PDP-11 compatible (binary I think but might be only assembly compatible for all I know). That also has 3 bit planar graphics, but is paletted out of a 6 bit palette. It is also much later, 1987. I have no idea if it has any ROM for the peripheral processing unit as it is called, but I would like to think so given its allocated role of graphics processor despite being just a normal CPU. However it probably doesn't. It was very interesting to learn about this machine anyway, thanks!

*The Commodore 128D has THREE CPUS: Zilog (Z80) and two different MOSTEK CPUS* that all operate at different frequencies!!! NOW THATS KRAZY!!!

Visual Technology did that with their V-1050 CP/M computer in the early 1980s. The Z-80 was used for the regular processing along with its own RAM and a 6502 was used along with its own 32K or RAM was used for graphics.

The 6809 was also used in CMI's Fairlight V.

Super video, bro...

I found a KZread video with Space Harrier for it and it’s super smooth!

I would love to see you get a Coleco Adam computer, there's some really cool things about it like the FujiNet and the MIDI adapter.

That is a very clean motherboard, but quite expensive to build I imagine. And that necessarily made the system expensive, which probably meant not very many games made for it. Reminds me of the computer that Exidy made, the Sorcerer. Very powerful for the time with great features, but just too expensive for the intended market. In today's dollars it would have been about $4000!

You actually can upload custom code to the sub CPU. I'm not sure if the commands fir it were ever officially documented but they're there. The two CPU setup is interesting because it means normal code doesn't have to worry about managing the sizeable 48KB of VRAM or having to share a bus with it while the sub CPU can get full direct access to it. On competing machines like NEC PC-8801 or Sharp X1 you had to bank switch the VRAM into the main CPU address space one 16KB bitplane at a time. I think this setup was mostly there to provide high resolution graphics while letingt programmers focus all the CPU time on processing without worrying about the graphics subsystem getting in the way. I don't think graphics draw performance was that much of a consideration.

@Curt_Sampson

10 ай бұрын

The subsystem command to execute arbitrary code was informally known as the "Yamauchi command"; if you do a search for "FM-7 YAMAUCHI" you'll come across some good information (in Japanese) on using it. (I'd give you a link, but KZread tends to suppress comments with links, I find.)

@frioglobal

9 ай бұрын

I was going to write the same comment. It is indeed possible to upload custom code to the sub CPU. Each of the main 8-bit Japanese systems had a different approach to obtaining high resolution display, it is very interesting to understand and appreciate them, and their evolution.

11:12 The 2KB ROM definitely is code (good call). From inspection and educated guesses, the ROM is divided into 4 sections that are bank-switched into address 0xFE00 - 0xFFFF. On the 6809, address 0xFFFE is the reset vector and all 4 banks have the reset vector send the CPU to address 0xFE00. In the 4th bank, there is just 1 instruction: BRAnch instruction that loops forever on itself. The other 3 banks start with a BRAnch instruction that skips over the next 9 bytes which appears to be 3 JMP instructions (likely a jump table). I'm not a 6809 expert but still interesting early results.

@ChrisDreher

9 ай бұрын

Just took a peek at the 32KB ROM 8449 and its last 512 bytes has the same structure as the 4 banks mentioned above. All 5 banks are different. Interesting...

@ChrisDreher

9 ай бұрын

After using a diff tool on the 4 banks of data (ignoring the one empty-loop-forever bank), they have a common structure. They mainly differ in the first ~64 bytes and the last ~64 bytes. The middle portion of each are identical other than a few bytes due to some jump offsets being slight different (this middle portion is what the 1st of the 3 JMP instructions mentioned above jumps to). The 1st 64 bytes is where the main differences are. The last 64 bytes are typically empty except for one bank where the 1st 64 bytes JMPs over the middle section to continue executing in the last 64 bytes.

That is nuts dood!

The 8-bit guy should see this!

Interesting. This reminds me of how the Digital Equipment Corporation VT240 graphics terminal works. That had a T-11 (PDP-11 chip with an 8-bit bus), an 8085 (I think) and an NEC graphics chip.

If that's a PFC SMPS power supply, it doesn't need a 220/110 switch. It will work on either. Only the old type power supplies needed a selecter switch

Fujitsu quality never disappoints.

I'd never heard of this computer before stumbling across this video however it does appear to be very well designed and thought out for its generation.

So while we in the USA were oohing and aahing the Atari 800 and 400, Japan and Spain had this...must have cost an arm and a leg back then.