========================== forth/critiques #41, from dmiller, 1741 chars, Sat Aug 2 14:03:55 1986 There is/are comment(s) on this message. -------------------------- TITLE: Leo Brodie's video Leo Brodie has a tape that will be of great interest to those dreaming of building a nc-4000 forth computer. I bought a copy. and spent last night watching the better parts about 5 times. The first part is a little slow and shows Chuck Moore assembling a forth kit step by step. It is meant to be an illustrated assembly manual for the kit. The next part is fascinating. It shows Chuck demonstrating the cpu and showing various configurations and power supplies. The cmos cpu with 48 k memory took only 50 ma with a 1 MIP performance, 1 mhz clock and would run about 3 weeks on 4 D cells. He shows about 6 add on peripherals including a 3 chip video capture frame grabber, a 2 chip prom burner, rs 232 port, parrallel port, minimal 7 switch ascii one hand keyboard, floppy interface using only 2 latch chips. Fascinating what he can do with a bare handfull of cheap chips. The last part of the tape shows George Nichols demosnstrating the software composer's line of assembled boards. They have a real rugged board/box set. Since the power consumption is so low about 100 ma at 4 MIPS/ 4 Mhz clock the computer plus 64 k words (128 k bytes) of memory doesn't need a fan and can be sealed for operation in dusty industrial/robotics applications. No fan noise!. George's box will bolt into an ibm pc empty case and use the ibm power supply. Or the box can be powered by recharging nicads and line to give a battery backed ram and embedded in a robot or other application. This tape should be essential for anyone getting the Computer Cowboy's Forth kit. I found it fascinating even though I hav3e a different board. usual disclaimers . no relation tothose mentioned. no commercial connection. <>