Yeah, its a retro laptop! I had reduced the size of my ongoing Z80 project down to something more wieldy by using CPLD chips, but it was still a bit too bulky to fit into an acceptably sized case. The next step was to look into FPGAs and see where they could take it. One thing led to another and I ended up building a self contained post modern home computer laptop.. thing.

Behold the specifications!

8MHz Zilog Z80 CPU
128KB System RAM
128KB Video RAM
128KB Audio RAM
128KB Sprite RAM
2.5" IDE HDD
Compact Flash Card Slot
5" LCD display.
4 Channel Stereo Sound
External A/V ports.
Home-brew architecture, OS and file system..
256 Colours on screen from palette of 4096

Main Digital Components:

1 x Z80 10MHz Microprocessor (44pin PLCC package)
2 x XC2S30 Xilinx Spartan II FGPA (144 pin TQFP package)
2 x K6R1008C1D 128KB 10ns 5volt async SRAM (32pin TSOPII package)
2 x M5M51008DFP 128KB 70ns 5volt async SRAM (32pin SOP package)
3 x 74HC574 SMT 8bit latch
1 x 74HCT08 SMT Quad AND gate
2 x 24C512 serial EEPROM 8 Pin DIL
2 x 29F629 PIC 8 pin DIL PIC
1 x ST232 RS232 Voltage <-> TTL Level Converter (SMT "micro" package)

(Parts were obtained from Digikey in the US and Rapid Electronics in the UK.)

Free (Windows) software used::

Xilinx ISE Webpack 7.12 - To design/compile the architecture for the FPGAs
Microchip MPLAB 7.31 - To compile the code for the configuration PIC
IC-prog - To burn the code to the configurator PIC and config file to the serial EEPROM
FreePCB - To design the circuits
Viewmate - To produce a track mask image from FreePCB's Gerber files
MSpaint* - To edit / print out the PCB masks
Pasmo Z80 Assembler - To assemble Z80 code on the PC
Purebasic evaluation - To create simple PC utils (serial download, file converters etc)
HHD Free Hex editor 3.1 - To edit files in hex byte format.

* I also used Paintshop Pro 5, which was given away free on a cover disk at one point. Something like The Gimp should suffice if required.

Q and A:

Q. Why make something so pitifully underpowered? Halo 3! Rave! Gibber!
A. For the fun of it. It's a hobby project.

Q. What are you going to do with it now?
A. Code stuff and generally tinker about.

Q. Will it run off batteries?
A. I didn't design in any battery charging system, but there is probably enough space inside for a custom battery pack. So the answer is "It could but it does not at the moment".

Q. Couldn't you have a bigger screen?
A. Sure, it just needs to have RGB inputs and I just need the cash :)

Q. Verilog or VHDL?
A. Schematics!