Disclaimer

The C-One is sold as a developer-computer. Do not buy it for what it may become in the future. If you buy, then only buy for what it is right now. You can get a pretty good idea of what's possible if you follow the news and the cone_cores Yahoo group. Also, the available cores on the download page of this website give a fairly good idea of what you can do with the board, even if you are not a developer.

You will always need a PC with internet connection and a CF card reader in order to fill your C-One with the latest software. The C-One cannot copy files to the CF card!

Common rumors - true or false?
  • The NTSC core does not work properly.
    This is only true for the NTSC core that Jeri Ellsworth provided in 2004. You can still download this core from this site for historical reasons, but you are encouraged to use Peter Wendrich's C64 core, which can be switched between PAL and NTSC while it is running. Truth is, the C-One can run NTSC C64 software. Peter Wendrich's core is cycle-exact in both NTSC and PAL modes of operation. This applies to all parts of the C64, including the processor and the VIC-II chip. This makes it superior to many C64 emulators.

  • The C-One is an Amstrad/Schneider machine
    Sure, it is - in a few of many modes of operation. There are cores that mimic the CPC464 and CPC6128 computers. Even turbo-variants of the machines can be launched on the C-One. You can put a number of DSK floppy disk images on the CF card and mount these disk images for easy use in the Amstrad/Schneider. New operation systems Future oS and SymbOS can be run on the Amstrad/Schneider cores. While the turbo-version of the Amstrad core is a good 4 times faster than the original machine, the standard cores try to be as close as possible to the original timing. However, the Z80 processor of these cores is not cycle-accurate.

  • The C-One has a PCI slot
    Yes, the physical PCI slot is there, but there is no core that makes use of it. At this point, there is nobody who is even working on support for the PCI slot. If you want to make an FPGA core that does this, please contact Individual Computers - we will support you with all required information.

  • The SD-Ram socket can't be used
    False. You can put memory in there and show it's proper function with test-cores that are available from the download page of this website. The Turbo CPC core makes good use of the SD-Ram. However, it's the only core that uses the SD-Ram socket, which might be the explanation of this rumor.

  • The board is not exactly ATX form factor
    True. Some PC cases don't like the fact that the board is about 1mm longer to the back, and the two audio connectors (RCA connetors) are in the wrong position to reach through holes in the back of the computer. You will need to drill new holes into the case in order to get the connectors to the right place.

  • The C-One is a supercomputer that will outperform any PC
    False. Back in 2002/2003, when the initial C-One Yahoo group was extremely busy, some people really got the wrong idea of a super-computer. We never intended to have something like this. The C-One is, however, a pioneer of re-configurable computing, and it will always be in the books as the first computer that allows re-confoguring it's central components on the fly.

  • The C-One has a SuperVIC and a MonsterSID
    False. This, and other empty promises belong to the fairy tale section, which is still online under "specifications" on this site. Again, this is historical, as it belongs to the things that the initial developer, Jeri Ellsworth, has promised. Development and bugfixing the C-One into the form as you can buy it today was mainly done by Tobias Gubener, Peter Wendrich and Jens Schönfeld. More names of developers can be found in the download section of this page in each file description.

  • The C-One has a 65816 processor
    True, but it is not used by any core at this point. The bus topology of the C-One only allows fairly low speeds on the 8-bit bus, so it's better to use a CPU that's inside of the FPGAs instead of using the slow, external CPU. The 65816 and it's associated 128KByte high-speed ram are included with every C-One board.

    • If you have any questions about the C-One, feel free to ask!