These look like they might be fun/useful devices

[dnb]

http://www.xess.com/prod034.php3

FPGA demoboards with VGA output on board & a lot of other I/O

I have a few ideas of what this could do - remember that FPGAs process inputs in parallel, so it's a reasonable basis for thinking about including in TCS/stability systems.

[[email protected]]

We had a development system were we took an open source VHDL microprocessor and mapped one of the registers to abit of VDHL that acted as a video codec pipeline (it would assemble an 8x8 macroblock and pass it on to the InverseDCT algorithm and so on).

Which processor do you prefer?  6502 http://www.sprow.co.uk/fpgas/free6502.htm
or Z80 http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/t80/overview

Trouble is theres a lack of I/O on that board, not a big issue really...

[dnb]

I'm not really a microprocessor person.  I grew up writing VHDL ;)

[cliffb75]

You can almost hear the swooshing sound as this thread passes entirely over my head........

Glad you chaps are happy about it though  ;D