I was looking at this today while digging around to investigate the Agon Light documentation as featured in another thread. (Yes, I know that is a different project.)gob33 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 2:04 pm OLIMEX is now selling the bi-processor Z80 + W65C02 64Ko = CERBERUS2100 at 220€:
For those interested, the Hardware Manual describes well the board.
It isn't a bad overview of the hardware, I suppose, although there is an element of "white paper" about it. I was particularly amused by the very first sentence in the introduction:
The Agon guy really has a hang-up about toys. I am sure it is a proficiently designed product, but I find several of the choices bemusing, like the insistence on a combination of 6502 and Z80 processors, particularly when emphasising the multi-processor capabilities. I know that there is a strong appeal to authenticity here, but I think that many people back in the day sought to move up to the 68000 and other processors when putting several of them in a machine.CERBERUS 2100™ is an innovative, fully-functional computer, not a toy
Using the 68000 (or, really, the 68010 onwards to get functional page fault handling) would provide broader opportunities for that educational aspect that people like to emphasise with these efforts, as I noted with the Commander X16, although the creator of that doesn't really make any strong representations about the educational value of his system. The Cerberus' graphical capabilities seem pretty underwhelming: 320x240 with a character-based display organisation, and the screenshot features the horrible Spectrum character set.
Given that a lot of these projects have been instigated to some extent by the existence of the Colour Maximite single-board computer, which still delivers a reasonable experience using off-the-shelf parts, I think that they really have to demonstrate comparable levels of utility and usability. At the low end, I suppose that the Neo6502 and Agon Light have both presented themselves as a kind of Maximite successor. And if charging larger sums of money, there has to be additional utility and, if presented in an educational context, sufficient accessibility for educators and students.
Otherwise, for 219 EUR, this comes across as a bit of a vanity project, subject to the kind of disparaging remarks about toys familiar to its creator. Not that I begrudge anyone their vanity projects, it should be noted: I have plenty of them myself.
Edit: I've updated the thread title to reflect that the commentary is largely about the new Cerberus 2100, which is a refinement of the Cerberus 2080, of course.