[MisterTea]

The fun part about old computers we won't get back with microcontrollers is actually building the computer part. You started with a CPU and from there you added memory such as DRAM, SRAM and ROM like EPROM/EEPROM and Flash, UART controllers, IO controllers, and interrupt/DMA controllers. Then you mapped those into memory or IO space and routed interrupts. The you started writing code and watch your computer come to life. Did that in uni and it was a life changing experience.

You could preserve some of that with an FPGA ecosystem starting with perhaps a simple RV32 core that you drag and drop UART, SPI, I2C, memory controllers, counters/timers, DMA, MMU, Ethernet, USB and other peripherals.

But part of me would want the old school preserved where we still make a series of hobby/trainer components in DIP (or PLCC/QFP) form and let people build a working computer from core components. Similar to how there was a line of support ICs for the Intel 808x and Motorola 68xx CPU's. Maybe some newer chips like a DIP USB host/device and a serial controller for SPI/SDIO/I2C. Perhaps a simple RV32 core in DIP 40 with a muxed 16 bit bus and 20+ bits of address.

[mghackerlady]

for what it's worth, there are kit computers you can buy still. It's a niche market, but there are a good few z80 kits out there and ben eater sells a kit for building a custom 8bit CPU on a breadboard and a 6502 based kit

[MisterTea]

I think they still make the Z80? In my uni it was an 8088 in minimal mode. At work we have a few JK Nd:YAG lasers running on 6809's still making money.

[mghackerlady]

They made the original Z80 until a year ago or so. They still sell Z80 based chips that are compatible, but aren't just a Z80