There are hundreds of modern, retrocomputing projects out there that put ancient CPUs and chips in a modern context. The Neon816 from [Lenore] is perhaps one of the most impressive projects like this we’ve seen. It’s a classic system in a modern form factor, with modern video output, mashed together into a MiniITX motherboard.
The powerhouse of this computer is the Western Design Center W65C816 CPU. This is the second generation of the venerable 6502 CPU, the same chip found in everything from the Commodore 64 to the Apple II to the Nintendo Entertainment System. The 65816 is a 6502 at start-up until you flip a bit in a register, at which time the signalling on the address bus becomes much weirder. We’ve seen some single board computers based on the 65816 before and The 8-Bit Guy has a few ideas to build a computer around this CPU, but for the foreseeable future work on that will be trapped in development hell.
Of note, the Neon816 will feature DVI output (I guess technically you can just run the analog signals through the connector), a PS/2 Joystick input, two Atari / Sega joystick ports, MIDI in and out, a PC-style floppy disc connector, and a Commodore serial bus. It’s a hodge-podge of classic retrotainment, all in a single MiniITX motherboard.
The key other feature of the Neon816 is an FPGA, specifically a Lattice XP2 8000 LUT chip that is used for video and audio. This is combined with 1MB of main RAM (looks like a simple SRAM) and 128k of Flash storage for the ROM. There’s also an SD card in there for storage.
Right now, [Lenore] is populating the first prototype board, and we can’t wait to see some video generated with this impressive little system.
The MiniITX Retro System
Source: HackADay
