Announcing the new "Gold Card" - QIMSI Gold

[Pr0f]

Hi, if someone with a 3D printer is interested, I have design another case for the QIMSI Gold, you can see and download the files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6846855

Does that allow for the version that have the RTC and Supercapacitor on the underside?

[Floppy525]

Does that allow for the version that have the RTC and Supercapacitor on the underside?

I reworked Detlev's case so that the QIMSI Gold with RTC fits in.
Can be found in the German forum: https://forum.tlienhard.com/phpBB3/view ... 955#p65955

[aalea]

Hi, if someone with a 3D printer is interested, I have design another case for the QIMSI Gold, you can see and download the files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6846855

Does that allow for the version that have the RTC and Supercapacitor on the underside?

Yes, when qimsi is inserted in QL is completely hide, but when is removed you can see a small part of the PCB.

Latest version for floppy525 hide completely the RTC

[Dave]

Please add me to the wait list for one of the next batch of QIMSI Gold.

Cheers

[Peter]

Hi Dave, you are late... but I hope you will like my little "artwork". Did you have a standard QIMSI already?

[Dave]

I'm late but I am grateful to be here at all. I have a Q68. I don't have a QIMSI. I missed several months.

I read the specs and the manual and think this is a very fine and well thought out design that is truly next level. Well done. The community owes you a great deal.

[Peter]

Thank you very much. The idea was actually born during a private email conversation with you.
I think you will like the PCB layout. It is four layer, the cheapest variant, quite a puzzle challenge to nicely route BGA to BGA.
Speed-wise it is no progress over the Q68 yet, but it allows user update of the FPGA, so I hope to bring cache when I find the time.

[Dave]

Looking at only the photos, the layout looks rational and elegant as is always the case with your work.

I think the uses you have put the ROM port to far exceed anything considered by Sinclair back in the day. If only they'd had the insight to include a R/W signal on the connector.

The furthest I got in my own development was getting an 8-bit 68000 to run at 45 MHz while accessing external RAM and external clone video, and clocking down to 7.5 MHz with a 6:1 divider when accessing QL IO. This broke microdrives and net, and half the original expansions wouldn't work, but I did get working floppy with a designed for fast bus 4-layer SQB design. It had 4MB of SRAM on it, 3.5MB mapped in.

Your work makes my efforts look like childish toys. I am honored to move in your circles!

:take_my_money_meme:

[Peter]

Your work makes my efforts look like childish toys.

It is retro computing, and probably we are all big kids, myself included. You did use an original Motorola CPU, and I like that. Leon here on the forum also did that initially. It appears that Leon won't build it for a wider audience, so there has been no new QL hardware with Motorla CPU released for 25 years! A gap that is worth filling, despite the FPGA stuff.

[ergonql]

Hello All,

After struggling finding a suitable SDXC card I eventually managed to have Qimsi Gold booting correctly. I am facing an issue connecting the QG to a 2560x1440 monitor as the picture (via HDMI) looks barely readable (see attachment), this regardless of the QL resolution I set. The image from QL-VGA on the VGA monitor port is OK (512x256 upscaled). I tried changing some HDMI cables with no success so I tried changing monitor and with an old 1366x768 TV/monitor everything looks OK. Any suggestion? Could it be I do not have proper cables or the upscaling to a 2560x1440 monitor is just too high?

thank you

Davide