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Just in case any of you are interested there's a Kickstarter running for an FPGA based Sinclair ZX Spectrum recreation with case designed by the original designer. They reached their initial goal of £250K in just over 24 hours and are now going for some stretch goals (one of which is for a ring-bound manual with a Sci-Fi themed cover ).

I've backed and suggested that they may wish to add extra Z80 based emulations, such as MTX, as a stretch goal too.

Anyway, if any of you are interested you can find the project here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18 ... escription

Having had a quick and very brief scan through the kick-starter page , I didn't see a price for the finished item, or it may be my dyslexic eyeballs didn't see it ?

Why Not Design & Make a ‘New’ ZX Spectrum Super ULA ??

I was recently discussing the pros-and-cons of making a ASIC (application specific Integrated Circuit) and being told that it is an expensive thing..costing around $200,000 , and a minimum production run of tens of thousands of units being needed. But not long after I saw another ZX Spectrum Crowd-funding Project..you know the type ! This one has reputedly raised more than £500,000 !! Then I thought , wouldn’t it be better to spend this sort of money on a new Super Spectrum ULA..with lots and lots of new features, rather than making yet another crowd-funded FGPA board ?? As £500,000 is significantly more than $200,000 it’s not like they haven’t got the Money !!

Super Spectrum ULA (PAL/NTSC/VGA output switchable)

Plane 0 (background plane )
ZX Spectrum Modes
plus:
512x192 4 Colours
256x192 16 Colours
512x192 (64x24 Colour Grid)
85x24 Colour Text Mode
64x24 Graphics/Text

Plane 1(Tile or Text/Graphics)
64x24 Text/Graphics
32x24 Text/Graphics
40x24 Text
85x24 Colour Text
128x48 Tile Mode (Tile 4x4)

Plane 2 (Sprite)
64 x (16x16) Multicoloured Sprites
8 x (32x32) Multicoloured Sprites

Plane 3
TMS9918 modes to give MSX and ColecoVision compatibility

AY-3-8910 & SN76489 Sound Chips built in
Joystick & PS/2 KBD Connectivity

Then it would be possible to design a 'Real' Super ZX Spectrum.... a Sort of Turbo R Spectrum with real chips !!

The backing level which gives the full base machine is £175 + delivery.

The ZX next Project

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18 ... xt/updates

Now that the ZX Next project has raided more than £723,000 perhaps they should consider investing some of that Money into designing some New 'Real' ZX Spectrum Chips. Namely a ZX spectrum Super ULA givivng much enhanced graphics and even a TMS9918 functionality , a Dedicated I/O Chip for KBD,PS/2 KBD, CF Card, SD Card, SIO & PIO, so a Spectrum can be created without FPGAs or CPLDs but real hardware as in the original ??. If the chips specification and design is done correctly the same chips could be used in other systems like MSX, Colecovision etc.