He's listing it at the same price ($99) as the BOB3.  You can use a
pretty small/cheap FPGA that simply becomes a memory-->video
converter.  The  microcontroller simply waits for vertical sync to
update the memory, and you can do all the graphics and text functions
in the micro.

Maybe use a little bigger fpga and put in dual access to the RAM
(since the video generator only reads there should never be a
conflict).

Of course, I'd like to see the BOB4 down in the $20 area, it's just a
video controller.

-Adam

On 8/19/06, Bob Axtell <engineer@neomailbox.com> wrote:
> M. Adam Davis wrote:
> > On 5/14/06, Robert Rolf <Robert.Rolf@ualberta.ca> wrote:
> >
> >> BOB III is nice but I'd like to know what chip he's using.
> >>
> >
> > On the Bob-4 page he states:
> > "BOB-3 customers should transition to BOB-4 without delay. BOB-3
> > shipments beyond September of 2006 cannot be guaranteed. Note that
> > changes to module pinout have occurred, relative to BOB-3. Download
> > the current BOB-4 Application Guide (see below) for full details."
> >
> > So it appears that whatever chip he's using for bob-3 is now going EOL
> > as well.  The Bob-4 is the same price, though, and adds bitmap
> > graphics, vector drawing, proportional fonts, etc.
> >
> > Looks like an FPGA, microcontroller, and memory.
> >
> > -Adam
> >
> It'll be pricey (the FPGA) but it looks like the BOB4 is a fix.
>
> I knew his BOB3 Mitsubitsi (sp?) character generator was going tits up, too.
>
> --Bob
>
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