This is a really cool project. I do a ton of AVR programming. They are fantastic chips.<p>A lot of people think because AVRs are 8-bit, they are just toys. And since ARM cortex processors are about the same price, that AVRs are not a good choice.<p>AVRs, like ARM Cortex, are SOCs (System On a Chip) but have really excellent peripheral devices compared to the ARM Cortex I've used. The AVR's internals are better documented, more consistent, more powerful and easier to use. The AtXmegas in particular, with their hardware event system and DMA controller.<p>ARMs have all the same peripherals but they are not as well thought out. However, if you need to do a lot of 32-bit math, ARM is a better option.<p>Edit: Note that a 32MHz atxmega AVR can do about 128k 32-bit floating-point multiplys per second.
Author here. Nice to see this on HN again. Since the first time, the design has been validated by another hobbyist (and ported to NTSC, original composite video is PAL).<p>If anyone is interested, I have a NTSC patch that I've meaning to merge for a while.
I've wanted to do a project like this for a while, but always seem to have too many higher priority things going on. There's something undeniably romantic about building your own personal computer in this fashion.
Some questions:<p>- How can I buy this one already assembled?<p>- Can it be put in a very silent case but still with a fan so as to not overheat?<p>- Can I use another display? (With the same technical characteristics but possibly less training on the yes; having a hardware brightness/contrast controls would be a HUGE boon as well).<p>- Can we use an US keyboard layout?
> ... the 23LCV512 has the interesting property of being able to operate at 5 volts, so that’s the main reason the microcomputer is called DAN64<p>I don't understand ...