Announcing the new "Gold Card" - QIMSI Gold

[Peter]

A remark regarding QIMSI Gold video modes: It is for a good reason, that the QIMSI Gold manual only lists the graphic modes which do not slow down the CPU significantly.
I'm not very happy that people use the other, unspecified modes and then complain about lack of speed. I shall make this more clear in the manual or even remove those modes altogether for future revisions.

And a remark about the performance of QIMSI Gold: BogoMIPS is meant to calibrate a Linux kernel's internal timing loop. It is not a benchmark. For a meaningful performance comparison, it makes more sense to try actual benchmark programs like Dhrystone, QSBB, QSI and Test 909.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Peter,

I only use the Q68 graphics modes: DISP_MODE 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, but mainly, DISP_MODE 4 & 6.

The other Display Modes, I do not use.

I would be happy with 1024x768 Mode 4, 512x384 Mode 33, 512x256 Mode 33.

The ability to use extra colours in a QL screen (512×256), could lead to more game development on the QL.

I am on the next batch of QIMI Gold.

[Tesla]

Hi Peter
One question: the new Qimsi Gold can also work without the SGC? If I understand correctly, I think so.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Marco

[Maskenlos]

I am not Peter, but I can answer. Of course it can work without (S)GC. It just needs a QL, even without any other expansion you can get full experience of Qimsi Gold.

Best regards,

Stephan

[Tesla]

Hi Stephan, I think you don't need to be Peter
Thanks for the information
Please check your e-mail
Cheers

Marco

[Peter]

One question: the new Qimsi Gold can also work without the SGC?

Yes, the idea was to provide a bit more power than the SGC, plus mass storage, plus mouse, plus modern video.

[Tesla]

Thanks Peter.
Cheers
Marco

[Tesla]

Hi everyone.
With the QIMSI Gold at this point I have a lot of peripherals for the QL . Since I haven't had time to install it yet, I would like to know, from those who have already installed the Qimsi Gold, which peripherals are compatible with it. I understand that S(G)C have become redundant but others like Vdrive, or disk interface etc. ?
A little help before starting to do dangerous experiments.
Thanks to anyone who wants to help me
Marco

[tofro]

Hi everyone.
With the QIMSI Gold at this point I have a lot of peripherals for the QL . Since I haven't had time to install it yet, I would like to know, from those who have already installed the Qimsi Gold, which peripherals are compatible with it. I understand that S(G)C have become redundant but others like Vdrive, or disk interface etc. ?
A little help before starting to do dangerous experiments.
Thanks to anyone who wants to help me
Marco

What you need to be aware of is that when you sit bin front of a QIMSI Gold-equipped QL, there is a lot more (operating) computer beyond the ROM port than in front of it. And everything that goes front-to-back or vice versa needs to pass the ROM port, which is, by modern standards, quite a bit of a performance bottleneck. That's why video, mass storage and the like is to the back, keyboard and other "slow" devices are being served by a small program running on the actual QL.

Stephan and Peter might correct me, but I don't think there is the intention (even if theoretically vaguely possible) to pipe further device data through that bottleneck, which basically means QIMSI Gold needs as a minimum an unexpanded QL, but that's also the maximum on "original" QL peripherals it will support. Anything that uses the ROM port address range, however, will not work (or rather, will make the QIMSI not boot) - The ROM port address range is occupied by the support program that needs to run to feed keypresses, for example, into the QIMSI. I have a Trump Card surrogate that has a fixed I/O space for a CF card in the ROM port area, this prevented the QIMSI Gold QL from booting - Nothing permanently damaged, just not working - After I removed that card, everything started to work.

[t0nyt]

Someone will correct me if I’m wrong but Qimsi Gold just uses the keyboard and joysticks, not Microdrives/Floppies etc.

It will work without a QL if you use PS2 keyboard/mouse and provide it with power

Or it can just be used as a standard Qimsi