The idea of the DEXT meteor is to create an easy to use, uncomplicated single board computer with the most processing power for it's cost.

So lets compare CPU specs:

The FPGA design is about 15$ more than a Z8S180 design.  The processing power difference is HUGE though.  Not only can an FPGA allow for a faster and bigger processor, it can handle all the glue logic and many peripherals.  Also, the FPGA can have a bigger address bus, so it can be upgraded further.

These price estimates assume the following about the produced SBC:

• Installed RAM is 1 MiB
• comes with dedicated audio, video, 28 GPIO pins, and WiFi support
• Computer has a BIOS or bootloader of some kind in ROM, at least 2KiB
• Doesn't include mass storage options.

We decided to go with the FPGA because the greater processing power is awesome.