KanedaFr wrote:I'll support any genny dev related project, like I did since the beginning.
But I'll never forget some people (like me!) are not ready to spend 75$ or more for a "dev cart".
Let's see: that's GBP 46.60 or €55.53 - I still work in British Pounds as I'm British
I suppose that it really comes down to how long you are prepared to extend you develoment cycle - I have less time than Money so $75 is not an issue to me personally. What's more, one can use UMDK as a generic FPGA DevBoard so the investment for some evens out and as such is worth while.
KanedaFr wrote:
If it needs to spend too much $$$ to dev on Genny, a lot of people won't ever try.
I'd agree that initially there should be little up front Costs to developing but what about the Developers who find themselves taking it seriously? Given that most of us work 40-70 Hours a Week in our 'proper Jobs' how many of us are in a position to devote perhaps four times as much time and effort into MD Development? Being able to single-step, memory-dump at will, trace, etc. all serve to facilitate the development process. I know that prior to this I would have to often write a fair amount of test code to get an 'Answer' to many of my Questions. It is fun but it comes at the expense of being able to work on the whole.
KanedaFr wrote:
if you're able to supply what it needs to start without even spend a cent, some will take some hours, days, weeks then months to develop the next Sonic
A Sonic Hack maybe but you'd need to exert considerable effort to realise a wholely new Sonic Game for the MD.
KanedaFr wrote:
I'm not saying umdk must be free of course !
Prophet made something great releasing the full source and schematic of umdk1 and it's exactly what I'll looking for...it's only missing a "umdk for electronic dummy" which could be done by someone else, letting prophet working on something more interesting.
Yes, indeed UMDK is Hardware, Software and Firmware and costs some Cash for the physical Components such as the FPGA, Level-Shifters, Connectors, etc.
Prophet has indeed done that but he has also done the same for UMDK version 2 - which is substantially more powerful and feature rich.
If your prime interest is Hardware then yes one would need to understand the Hardware Design for UMDK v1 and UMDK v2 but if you simply wished to use it for MD development then this is actually not necessary as you are simply using the DevBoard - like you would use any other DevBoard for the AVR, PIC, ARM, PPC, etc. to execute the Code that you assemble, link, compile, etc.
If you really wanted to get into writing Firmware then you would need to install the Tools to generate Logic from the VHDL but most Developers will not want to do that and would simply use the Board for their own Projects.
KanedaFr wrote:I hope you understand my goals
I can understand your Goals, kaneda, but I also appreciate that there are many MD Developers out there who would fervently welcome modern Debug Features and being able to single-step, dump MD Memory, trace, trigger on conditions, etc. and the < $75 entry point is not too bad at all for what one could achieve with it and how much sooner the Results could be seen.
In essence: it would completely change how most of us develop Software for the MD and being able to develop directly on the real Hardware will always beat any Emulator. Being able to connect Probes and other Test-Equipment to get accurate Timing-Data and all manner of other Facets will quickly out weigh the benefits of developing under an Emulator.
Plus, should you wish to 'add extra Hardware' to the MD then UMDK would help you to realise such a Goal - it has Gates available that could be used to form further Components or provide an Interface into another Board that could contain other Hardware, etc.