![]() I'd like to think the X16 will be more open source friendly but I realise its costing David and the team a lot of money to put together and I understand they need to make that money back however possible and that may mean the X16 cannot be open source hardware like the Uzebox. I was looking into how open source the Spectrum Next is a few days ago and it seems the answer is not very. Good to know there is already FPGA replacement for the FM2151 but I think there are many like me who want to avoid FPGAs as much as possible on what is trying to be a retro computer. That would also help reduce the footprint for the Phase2 board, since a small FPGA (it would be smaller than the one used for Vera) would be one surface mount part replacing two through hole parts. The chip most likely to be an issue over the medium term horizon would be the FM chip, and if it looks like there is going to be so much demand for both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 boards to create a problem, they do have the option of using the jt51 software compatible FPGA core - in particular, if the cost reduced board doesn't use a real FM2151, that would help preserve the supply available for the Phase 1 boards. I hope the Commander X16 doesn't get thwarted by chip shortage problems. ![]() Those wanting to get into retro games development and want real hardware to run their games on are going to struggle more and more with each passing year to buy retro hardware as more retro consoles and computers die, requiring custom chips to repair that are no longer available and the hardware becomes increasingly expensive. ![]()
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