Éclaire XL, device that emulates Atari computers
1 min read
views
Amazing. Israeli Atari user Nir Dary shared a video demonstrating the potential of the éclaire XL, hardware programmed to emulate an 8-bit Atari computer.
It is a digital device of the FPGA type (acronym for Field Programmable Gate Array) Developed since 2013 by the English Mark "foft" Watson-who has been involved in the reengineering of the Atari 800XL computer for years- together with the Greek Santos "santosp" Panos.
The project - dubbed "the FPGA-based Atari XL computer" - consists of a motherboard with chips reconfigured to simulate the XL series computers.
EclaireXL is extremely compatible with the Atari software library; it supports different RAM configurations: 64K, 128K, 320K compy/rambo, 576K and 1 MB.
The mainboard has VGA, RGB, HDMI and S-Video outputs; two USB ports and an SD card slot, which allows loading ROM and ATR files as if it were a disk reader; in addition to emulating dual POKEY and the Covox audio device.
Perhaps the main advantage of eclaireXL is that you can connect all the original peripherals, such as paddles, and run 16k cartridges. If that weren't enough, it also supports conventional peripherals such as wireless keyboards and USB joysticks.
"This is a hardware emulation, not a software one. We are not using the original logic circuits. However, we have the schematics and they have been used in part (...) There is a 6502 CPU. There is no original mOS (multi Operating System) there but it is highly compatible," he stresses. Watson on the AtariAge forum
At the moment, the project is in the development stage.beta testing-That's why Dary was able to get one of only five prototypes. The cost is about USD 230, plus shipping costs.
The authors predict that users will soon be able to "flash" the board's core to install futureupgradesavailable. In addition, they plan to have the complete hardware sold inside a standard mini ITX case.
Posted by
Please comment politely. Spam comments will be moderated. Thank you.