/ At this point one / is quickly contemplating a card wtih IDE, USB, video, and 10/100 ethernet all rolled into one. / And then one start comptemplating a total 68K computer upgrade that just uses the host motherboard as an I/O interface....

Click to expand...

And then one contemplates a Coldfire SBC that just thinks it's a Mac... which saves you all the problems of interfacing to the '030 PDS etc

BTW Eudimorphodon at the Applefritter thread suggests another possible plan of attack:

/ would be to use one of the FPGA/CPU core hybrid chips. (Something like a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro, which has an embedded PowerPC core.)

Click to expand...

... to recreate a PDS upgrade like the Apple 601 cards, but packing a G3/G4 or two, and running the Apple 68k emulator in PPC code.

Virtex-4 Multi-Platform FPGA
Up to two 450MHz embedded IBM PowerPC 405

SelectIO™

Ultimate Parallel Connectivity

* 1+ Gbps differential I/O

* 600 Mbps single-ended I/O

* ChipSync™ source-synchronous interface

* 16 I/O banks

RocketIO™

* connect or bridge "anything to anything" with up to 24 serial transceivers, 622 Mbps to 6.5 Gbps, full duplex

Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet

Click to expand...

That's much more what I was thinking / replicating the non-CPU parts of Apple's 601 upgrade cards in the FPGA, hacked to support the dual 405 CPUs.

Click to expand...

You'd be better off using a stand-alone FPGA and a G3/G4 CPU. / The 405 core lacks an FPU, has a somewhat different MMU / and has some instruction/hardware extensions that could all pose difficulties / Duplicating the Apple PPC upgrade card is probably very doable, but figure spending several thousands of dollars / and a lot of reverse engineering /

Click to expand...

So... 68k PDS to ZIF socket, anyone?