How much will it coast? Do schematic diagram flow around of an old 68K computer somewhere?

Thanks :-)

The 68K processor is relatively easy to use as it utilizes a simple 16 bit asynchronous data bus. Check Freescale's website to see what you need to get going. I believe they still sell a version called the 68EC000. They might even have a very low cost development board you could use.

Most of Freescale's efforts today are going into supporting the next generation version of the architecture known as ColdFire. It is an almost compatible version of the 68K with a few enhancements. Freescale might have some assist code to allow you to run 68K code directly. There are many low cost ColdFire development boards available from Freescale.

Btw, the 68K was first introduced first back in 1979, in 3.5 micron Nmos. It was a big leap forward at the time due to its support of 32-bit address and data types. It was implemented in about 38K transistors which is very small by today's standards. It was by far the most popular processor of its time, due to the clean architecture and its simple and straightforward approaches to developing code.

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Dave Mothersole
CTO, Genesi USA Inc.

We built one out of salvaged parts from a local metal recycling company back in the early 90s. It was practically free -- we wire-wrapped a board with SRAM, UART, DAC and a few other things. :-)

If you want to tinker with 68K today, I would recommend getting something like a minimig instead. It's a recreation of Amiga 500/600 on a small board with an FPGA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimig

Hi.

You can build one inside an FPGA. Use this as a starting point:

http://opencores.org/project,ao68000

It also links to other 68K in FPGA designs.

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Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet