PIC, FPGA, and a notebook

[serimu]

Can I create a device which will do serve as a notebook.

It needs to have

a small lcd panel (2 to 4 lines)
a small keyboard
cpu and memory
usb to connect pc to transfer files

I can write in assembly or C to write the program. But I dont know whether such a device is possible or not.

When I search for FPGA, I found out there are OS for FPGA. I know OS is small in size, but how much memory or what kind of electronic components will I need?

[ktomecek]

Why not use something like a VIA motherboard (they are small) and you could add a serial based LCD. Then you could stick with a major OS like Linux or Windows (Hey I heard you laughing in the background). What is your objective with this device..meaning, is it battery powered, or can you plug it in, etc. what size were you looking for? I have also seen some chips that run DOS (almost a single chip solution), but I can't remember the name of them. You could write program fairly easily in that.

[bwts]

Well it does depend on how much data you would like to store. A whole OS seems over the top to me.

It is possible to hook up an FPGA to a USB, some Flash memeory and an LCD but doing it in C would be painful, Verilog or some other hardware discription language would be the way to go.

Have a look at http://www.opencores.org/

Plenty of free code that may help

[haklesup]

An FPGA is like having a big pile of 74xx logic gates. Sure you can program them into something with CPU like functions but the develpoment is significant. For portable devices they make sense only when you wnat to peel away all but the functions you need and then clone a bunch or the development cost and effort will make it not worthwhile.

Now a PIC, microcontroller or microprocessor can all be configured with the generic bus archetecture which allow you to address memory, input devices and displays as required. With the core CPU already built into these classes and other functions more or less as determined by opart number, these devices are a lot closer to what you need. Pic and uController should also have some built in flash memory to hold your firmware.

Theres not much you can do with a 2-4 line display exept maybe display ASCII files. Consider a 320x480 TFT display or similar. With a code library, it may not be much harder to use.

[arealperson]

What is wrong with just using a gameboy?