C256 Foenix "Gen X"

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:25 am

Likely... there is another blank key next to the chunky Enter key. This is prototype #1 and she is currently working on integrating the 40mhz 68040.

If anybody is even remotely considering investing in one, better hurry. Most of what she will sell is likely to be ‘Gen X’ cubes but there will be a window for the next month to get in on these (I predict), before focus changes. As of now, they are all hand built in Canada with piles of surface mount components arduously affixed to the 6 layer board, by hand, by one person.

I think the Gen X will be a minimum assembly required ‘kit’ (no soldering) to ease shipping and tariff etc. but stay tuned to her site, discord, and Stefany’s Twitter... things are moving fast.

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:09 am

Is there software for these machines? I mean Stefany and other users should've been already written at least several useful programs for these machines, and should've shared them with community. I navigated to Software category [https://c256foenix.com/software/?v=6cc98ba2045f], but is says "IN CONSTRUCTION", and all sublinks redirect to other non-software site categories.

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:27 pm

Depends on your definition of software. I'm pretty sure I'll be corrected in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2..

My C256U ships today (others that beat me have picked theirs up early in the week and shipped yesterday) so I'll be digging in for a first hand view of what I can get to run. I bought an add-on card that adds two physical SIDs and an Ethernet RJ-45 and one of the team created the Ethernet stack so I anticipate horizons opening up (the 'U' does not have an onboard Ethernet unless you add it as I did but the 'K' and the 'Gen X' does). Otherwise, there is an SD card slot as we've all come to expect.

Stefany likens these machines similarly to the C64 experience when you (if an early adopter) first got your hands on it. One difference is that WDC produces a C compiler, a Forth compiler, assembler, etc. and there are many many of us that have a lifetime of software development behind us AND owned C64s when they were first released so I expect a good following.

I remember well, typing in that basic program to create a sprite of a balloon and watching it traverse the screen diagonally. I expect header files are available for all of the Vicky II registers (tiles, etc) else you can just make them yourself.

There is a BASIC interpreter but it's got nothing to do with Commodore.

Of the 70 people that purchased the FMX a few years ago, some software was produced that can be (is being) ported. I've also seen a few screens of AtariST TOS GUI in development on the A2560U.

Here are two quick vids by Daniel Tremblay (he's got others on his channel).

This one starts with Stefany first taking on the project (of the original FMX) and goes up through a few years ago starting with David's intro to 'dream'. One thing that has not changed is the CPU, the clock speed, and the FPGA video capabilities and the that there is still plenty of sound.

This guy (below) @PGW on Discord, is writing the Kernel (the original C256 and even todays 'U' kernel is written in Assembly) but he is porting it in 'C' so that it can be leveraged across the full line of Foenix machines. It's a low budget monitor to get a binary loaded and up and running.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMNLxfepc0xAZodcvOlVenQ

So on one hand, it's early days, on the other, there are retro style games in the works (pong LOL), utilities, tools, etc.

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 5:32 pm

Thank you for sharing info and videos! I meant any known working software. Just wanted to scroll through some list of names, descriptions, screenshots, videos.

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:09 pm

On 10/13/2021 at 10:32 AM, Cyber said:

Thank you for sharing info and videos! I meant any known working software. Just wanted to scroll through some list of names, descriptions, screenshots, videos.

There's no definitive list at this point. None that I know of, anyway. Your best bet is to ask on the project Discord.

EDIT: Discord link

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 7:21 pm

Foenix has landed. Here is mine mounted to my 'wall of doom':

Close up of the hand soldering/baking quality; the connector is for an IDE hard disk (but I'm not using that); it has an SD slot on the bottom left of the board, a USB debug port for pushing in code as well; as a cost cutting measure, Stefany dropped the floppy interface that is present on the FMX via SuperIO IC. On the left, you can see the Yamaha OPL. On the right you can see the expansion connector and I have the 2 x SID + Ethernet RJ45 on order; it will ship with my A2560K.

Here is the boot screen; it takes about 2 seconds to display the banner and the text below it scrolls out in TTY type fashion. If you don't know the people involved, Stefany owns the project and design/builds everything from concept to 3D modeling, FPGA development, and HW Peter Weingartner wrote the Kernel and other tools and is actively engaged in ongoing development; he is "Tail Recursive" and you can watch his 65C816 series and FMX related vids if interested. Daniel has written a fair amount as well including some of what I posted above.

The first thing I did after getting it installed and running was to type "Monitor" from basic and enter some VICKY II register changes to 'light up' my first sprite. If you've done C64 development, you'll be comfortable with Sprite pointers including X and Y positioning (both of which have L_byte and H_byte due to resolution). Also, no faffing about with memory windows, you've got full 24 bit addressing in the 65C816 so you'll note the two additional significant digits "AF" in the monitor which are the 17th-24th bit (if you count from 1). In this case, I merely set the video mode which is a bit mask of Sprites + Text overlay on top of Bitmap, etc., enabled Sprite 1, and set the location on the screen of 128, 128. (of course the # of sprites and color palette etc is vastly improved). Next up, 64 Amiga bouncing balls : )

So many differences between what is happening on Discord in terms of the style of communication and who is doing the talking and posting versus what is happening here and I know this is a polarizing topic for some, but I urge anybody sitting on the fence to have a look at C256 Foenix. It's legit.

If 68K is more your thing, you can get the same exact hardware and experience but with a genuine Motorola 68K onboard. The startup is different due to the use of a microkernel which is still under development but this platform and the code base will eventually merge since it's written in (primarily) C lang. I think I mentioned prior (or somebody else may have) that some of the community have Atari ST software in mind for porting to this platform.

The C256U and A2560U set the groundwork for the C256 Gen X (cube) and the A2560X, each of which have many many more ports and in the case of the Gen X, an option for a 2nd processor which will be selectable at boot time. This platform is due to ship in the next month or so, I believe.

Then there is the A2560K which is the all-in-one keyboard based design posted above which is MC68040 based.

Tatwi · Post by **Tatwi** » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:43 pm

Stefany remarked in her A2560K video that 50 out of 70 of the first devices that she produced were sitting around doing nothing and it pissed her off. She's not putting all this effort into hand crafting doorstops and trophies. Her perspective on the purpose of her work is admirable, but it's probably lost on most people who will buy her products; Devices will sit on shelves, hang on walls, teaching little more than consumers will consume.

paulscottrobson · Post by **paulscottrobson** » Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:39 pm

Don't know if anyone else thought of this but Brits and French might think it looks familiar.

BruceMcF · Post by **BruceMcF** » Sat Oct 23, 2021 2:30 am

On 10/22/2021 at 8:43 AM, Tatwi said:

Stefany remarked in her A2560K video that 50 out of 70 of the first devices that she produced were sitting around doing nothing and it pissed her off. She's not putting all this effort into hand crafting doorstops and trophies. Her perspective on the purpose of her work is admirable, but it's probably lost on most people who will buy her products; Devices will sit on shelves, hang on walls, teaching little more than consumers will consume.

20 out of 70 NOT sitting around doing nothing is a pretty good strike rate.

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Sat Oct 23, 2021 5:30 pm

She is supremely talented and passionate about everything she does in order to further and support her platform, hence the surprise or disappointment that more FMX'es are not in use.

If you watch the video of her presenting at Jim Drew's CRX (I think '18 or '19), you'll see a very different person; long on plans but less mileage under her belt. She's experienced so much by now and upon reflection, cannot understand why there are not more people still using the FMX, at least that's what I gleam from her statement.

In comparing the U+ to the FMX, the latter looks superior in terms of specifications; it's a rocket ship; but they both have the same core and perform as well for 99% of the workloads; the main diff is I/O and some of the Audio capabilities if you are an IC snob. I wish I could get my hands on one. The U+ is much more economical and actually the ONLY VIABLE option in 2021; it's brilliant that she arrived at this end. The A2560K and Gen X will be better still and the best yet, especially now that the MC68040 and other 68K family CPUs are options.

With supply chain matters being what they are, it's a miracle she was able to ship anything, especially in small quantities. This only works because she dedicates 18 hrs a day and being more concerned about "being good" than "looking good" or "being famous", She admittedly "doesn't give a F..." about so many things. I'd like to see her Briggs Myers and compare it to other innovators that went on to succeed in the face of adversity.

Credit also goes to others on her virtual team and their support of the platform; increasingly, evenings are becoming Christmas-eve like events as core developers in different timezones come online and post updates on progress and code; user level apps (games and utilities) are starting to surface as well. There is no app-store or organized SW repo per se, but momentum is building. Peri did a massive favor for the X16 community by conceptualizing and implementing this forum (I think he is the one that deserves credit for it). Without it, many many more developers would have wandered away by now because every other aspect of platform delivery has been disappointing.