Actually, I think I joined once, lurked for a long time, then stopped. Then I found the site again, found I still had a login.

and code, lots of code.

First off, here's the parts list, with digikey links, and price breakdowns.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArVW6ZRBoIhOdFdyY25QMkppejJFc19sd1FpWF9UNHc&usp=sharing

Now, to the fun part!

This is a simple design for an ez8-based computer. The ez8 is, like the ez80, a modern chip based off of an old zilog chip. However, instead of being based on the z80, which we all know and love, it is based on the z8. This chip was designed to be similar to the z80 in syntactical programming, but the architecture itself is quite different. There is also a C compiler provided by Atmel for the non-gurus.

The computer has 2 ez8 chips, each running at 20 MHz, with 16 KB of flash, 2 KB of RAM, and 29 I/O ports. One of these acts as the primary CPU, for general tasks, while the other is slaved, doing tasks as it is polled, such as managing the included sound system (speaker and headphone port) as well as other routines.

The computer uses a B/W 128x64 display, with a built-in driver chip that makes interfacing it extremely simple. An 8-bit bus for data and instructions, with a few other bits on the side. Duty Cycle is adjustable, so greyscale should be easier than on the TI series.

The main method of input is intended to be a PS/2 keyboard. Also included is a MicroSD card slot, which will interface to the main chip via SPI.

For power, an LM237 regulator hooked to a 4xAA battery holder is also included.

Some notes:

For the most part, this project should be relatively easy to work with. The ez8 chips are 40-pin DIP, with sockets. Most (not all) of the components involved are thru-hole, and most of those that are not can be easily substituted with materials on hand. (For example, I plan to use a floppy connector for the prototype's SD card slot) As of yet, I have no plans to make boards for this, or any other manufacturing arrangements. If there's enough interest later, then maybe that can change .


Here's Zilog's page on the exact chip.
http://www.zilog.com/index.php?option=com_product&Itemid=26&task=parts&familyId=6&productId=Z8F1621&mpn=Z8F1621PM020EG&mpnid=5183&scrollmpn=1&rootpage=b3B0aW9uPWNvbV9wcm9kdWN0JnRhc2s9cHJvZHVjdCZidXNpbmVzc0xpbmU9MSZpZD0yJnBhcmVudF9pZD0yJkl0ZW1pZD01Ng==

In any case, since GlassOS has a fully implemented libc, it would be fairly trivial to port Lua.

That ti-85 fr wouldn't be half bad if they threw in some archive space.

Just like any computer, for a language to run an interpreter has to be made for it. There's nothing preventing other languages from running on it, except for lacking a port. Axe, in particular, would need modifications to accomodate the new OS structure, but most of the internal code it generates would be fine as-is.

Also, Forth is not as hard as z80, at least in my opinion. However, it's not exactly straightforward to look at.

In some ways forth is actually easier. For one thing, the language has relatively few operations and no pointer management.

On the other hand, you do have a massive stack to worry about, and it's not exactly straightforward to follow.

The best reason to have a forth interpreter is probably because of how much easier it is to create than other language interpreters.