Re: [colorforth] Hello - and where to begin?

["Jeff Fox" <fox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> vaded@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> You may want to spend more time at ultratechnology.com.
>
> I spent a lot of time at the original ultratechnology.com. It was a
> beautiful theory murdered by a gang of brutal facts. Also known as
> vaporware. Two or three people can have the greatest idea in the world,
> but if it doesn't get built and sold, it doesn't exist.

After the UtraTechnology funding ran out, after real chips were built
and sold, iTV emerged with the potential to produce in large
quantity.  But they offered seats on the board of directors to
investors from the competition who voted to keep the technology
on the shelf and not release to the public because our $30
Internet TV would have competed with their $3000 Internet TV.

Some Forth chips had been funded by the US Air Force and by
NASA.  After iTV the only remaining interest came from military
smart weapons designers.  Low power, low cost, fast, disposble,
rugged hostile environment chips are needed for the coming
generations of smart weapons.  That stuff is real, and I worked
on it for a while before I decided that it wasn't my thing.
It seemed like a shame to me that the only interest in low
power, low cost, easy to program computers was for 'killer
apps' not for educational computers.

While OLPC is not a $5 or $10 personal educational computer
for the third world it is closer than a $500 PC and it is
not designed specifically to blow people up but to educate
children so I think it is a good thing.

Best Wishes

> Well ... a Forth chip obviously will run Forth faster per watt or square
> centimeter of board or chip space than a conventional chip will. But put
> that chip on a board, add RAM, peripherals, a box, FCC compliance, power
> supplies, etc., and suddenly it looks like a computer with only the CPU
> more cost-effective than other solutions, and even then, only in the
> Forth language.

My favorite product at iTV was the 5" B/W TV AM/FM Internet Browser
and Email appliance.  Using the $19 5" TV as the box and power supply
was cheaper than other solution.  We made a $5 card that slid into
the battery compartment at about the same cost as a set of disposable
batteries that turned it into a sort of miniature IMAC.  The software
was fun to do and kept the memory requirements and costs down. I also
liked the project that did something similar with a $2 mouse.

Today a Forth based PC will probably get a dozen to a few hundred
cluster chips with a few dozen Forth processors on each of them if
it was going to be in the PC class regarding cost.  So instead of
comparing one 450Mhz processor to one Forth processor you will be
comparing one 450Mhz processor to hundreds or thousands of
gigahertz processors.  For some things (lots of legacy things)
a single compatible process will make it easy to use old software.
For other things (lots of new things) hundreds of fast processors
will make things easier.  And creating a need for Forth programming
is seen as a good thing by people who enjoy Forth programming.

> It's been a long time since I did any Forth programming, but from what
> I've seen, Forth, Inc. is about the only Forth business that's thriving.
>    Now maybe -- just maybe -- SeaForth will catch on, but it's not going
> to be as a general-purpose computer.

I think SEAforth chips will eventually go into general purpose
computers.  But that's not what is happening today so it is just
speculation. I would like to be the first or second person to have
a box at home with thousands of Forth clusters in it.

Best Wishes



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