• Comparison of XiAleste with other projects

    12/13/2022 at 14:01 • 0 comments

    A little bit about the motivations for creating the project XiAleste.

    The presence of similar projects for ZX Spectrum and C128 provoked the beginning of this project. Another reason was that Aleste 520EX is difficult to assemble and its circuitry does not meet modern requirements.

    ZX Evolution

    ZX Evolution is a wonderful project, with almost unlimited possibilities. If you appreciate the retro style, this project is for you. You can put a sound board into the sockets of this computer (of which there are many on sale or in open source). 

    The main difference of XiAleste is that it is a clone of Amstrad CPC6128 and this clone is focused on high quality sound synthesis. So if you appreciate sound, like to control a synthesizer or program sound processing, XiAleste will offer just that.

    Phoenix C256

    It is an amazing and magnificent project, with a brilliant design and production culture. The basic concept (in my opinion) is to implement everything necessary to produce game graphics and sound by a hardware. This allows to relieve the central processor, which in this project is quite powerful.


    In XiAleste the concept is different, instead of hardware solutions their software alternatives work. Which is easier to create and modify, and they are also more flexible.

    ZX Next

    This project is perfect in my opinion. Despite its modern design, it is fully in line with Clive Sinclair's concept of constructive minimalism. I like the ZX Next a bit more than the others on this list. 

    Perhaps the main difference between XiAleste and the projects above -- XiAleste is the completely open source. Whereas all the above projects can only be bought (although ZX Evolution has enough information to build it yourself).

    The focus on sound synthesis is the cornerstone of XiAleste. You can say that an advanced sampler synthesizer is under the control of the CPC6128.

    I love Amstrad CPC and I wanted to do something in memory of the wonderful visionary engineers who created this computer - to make Amstrad a little more talked about.