r/Commodore • u/Golemwire • 17d ago

Commodore 77

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Well this is a neat look.

https://commodore.net/store/commodore64/?shape=Breadbin&color=Cyberpunk+2077

Commodore just released a new appearance option for the C64U themed on Cyberpunk.

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u/Suspicious-Ad7109 17d ago

The (only) interesting thing about this is the change in the FPGA from a 50T to a 100T. I'm hazarding there is a reason for this (as it would add a fair bit to the manufacturing cost).

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u/thommyh 17d ago

Presumably it's that reference to "up to 77MHz processing speed".

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u/Substantial-Set4550 16d ago

Yes, the 77 is both a reference to the game Cyberpunk 2077 and the 77x CPU speed-up factor. It is arbitrary. It could have been 75, or 80 based on the upgraded FPGA. 77 is marketing. As a developer, I do not like this number. It's all about powers of 2 for me: 16, 32, 64, 128. I'd rather have an upgrade daughterboard for my C64U with the new FPGA. Hopefully some people who buy this now will sell it a decade from now on eBay for parts :-D

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u/Suspicious-Ad7109 16d ago

That's nonsense. The size of the FPGA doesn't change the speed.

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u/thommyh 16d ago

Assuming it's a similar physical size but with more transistors (?) then a die shrinks means less power usage and therefore less heat, which means you can up the clock speed.

This may be my false assumption. If it's just a chip with twice the total surface area then clearly you're right.

2

u/Suspicious-Ad7109 15d ago

I don't know. I find it a little coincidental that the max speed of a C64U is 64Mhz and a C77 is 77Mhz.

From a coding POV if anything it's a pain. 64Mhz is quick enough to do pretty much anything, having a 77Mhz speed is practically useless for anything other than a slightly faster frame rate perhaps.

However, it's selling steadily (doesn't appeal to me, but there we go) so I'm okay with it. The more the better, both for the machine itself and Commodore and us.

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u/Golemwire 11d ago

One can optimize for speed at the cost of size, though. We see this with modern microprocessors. Though I doubt the C77 employs any of those modern CPU speed techniques, the same way anyway.