Q40 and Q60 boards

[guibrush]

I can't answer for vox, but as I'm an Amiga too, I dare to explain why I'm interested into the QL: it's because of SMSQ/E. We have AmigaOS on Amiga, that is a nice multitasking and efficient operating system. Because of this, I'm interested into all Similar OS of this era: FreeMINT on Atari, MacOS classic, LisaOS, BeOS, PsyOS (OS of the Smaky Swiss computer), TownOS, SXwindows, Arthur... And of course, SMSQ/E

In addition, the concept of the QIMSI is similar to what the Vampire V4 do on the Amiga, I love this. But a real 060 motherboard with a good graphic card would be of course an interesting machine to play with the OS!

[vox]

I can't answer for vox, but as I'm an Amiga too, I dare to explain why I'm interested into the QL: it's because of SMSQ/E. We have AmigaOS on Amiga, that is a nice multitasking and efficient operating system. Because of this, I'm interested into all Similar OS of this era: FreeMINT on Atari, MacOS classic, LisaOS, BeOS, PsyOS (OS of the Smaky Swiss computer), TownOS, SXwindows, Arthur... And of course, SMSQ/E

In addition, the concept of the QIMSI is similar to what the Vampire V4 do on the Amiga, I love this. But a real 060 motherboard with a good graphic card would be of course an interesting machine to play with the OS!

I can only agree, as we know power of good DOS as well as of simplicity of BASIC. However there are diffs from QDOS and MS DOS, AmigaDOS, Linux terminal ... but I ve got books about QDOS and SB to overcome this small obstacles

QL has that strange feat of multitasking on same screen, which is very rare as for the time, even today.
SB with extensions seems to be one of most powerful basics of the era.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

QDOS, SMSQ/E is easier than AmigaDOS, as there is nothing much in the way to prevent it.

The assembler on the Amiga uses a C Library methodology, whereas QDOS/SMSQ/E uses a TRAP and Vector system to write programmes.

It all depends on what you like.

I prefer Qliberator to AMOS and Blitz Basic.

[vox]

Hi,

QDOS, SMSQ/E is easier than AmigaDOS, as there is nothing much in the way to prevent it.

The assembler on the Amiga uses a C Library methodology, whereas QDOS/SMSQ/E uses a TRAP and Vector system to write programmes.

It all depends on what you like.

I prefer Qliberator to AMOS and Blitz Basic.

Hi Derek,

Since my coding skills end with ZX Basic, I ll do my best to learn SB and m68k assambly on QL.
I keep Amiga Hoolywood 5 just in case

[Tinyfpga]

Peter posted:- I have only very limited time, it might be better invested in fixing bugs, cache, the Qzero, or even a new 68060 mainboard.

What about a Qzero with the Apollo 68080 core, rather than a new 68060 main board ?
I can guess that using the Apollo would be to much work.

?

[XorA]

What about a Qzero with the Apollo 68080 core, rather than a new 68060 main board ?

Why not port smsq/e to Vampire V4 SA?

[Tinyfpga]

Sadly I can't. I can barely write a BASIC program.

The Vampire V4 SA is a powerful system with lots of complex I/O. I imagine it would be very difficult to get
enough technical information on its design to be able to write the device drivers needed to support SMSQE.

For example, a USB keyboard driver for the QIMSI Gold or Q68 is hard enough, such as to make it not worth the effort
to write.

I am sure it was designed to support Amiga DOS (or what ever it is called). It contains advanced versions of Amiga
compatible hardware that would probably not suit TT's SMS concepts.

It am sure it would be easier (and better) to start from scratch and just use the Apollo 68080 as a powerful 68000 compatible
processor.

When I say easier, I don't mean easy, and its not something I can do either.

I am aware that the 68080 is a commercial product and is probably not available, even under license.

[Derek_Stewart]

HI,

The Apollo Standalone V4+ detailed at this web page:

https://www.apollo-computer.com/v4standalone.php

is priced at £531.12

http://shoq.apollo-computer.com/product ... ducts_id=1

Runs Amiga OS that is probably AmigaDOS 4, which needs an emulator to run older Amiga software. I was considering buying one and dumping all other computer stuff.

The CORE of he Vamoire is closed source so no update available other than from Apollo-Computers and I would guess that hacking the core would have all sorts of legal problems.

Porting SMSQ/E onto the Vampire is a good idea, but who has the skills to do this.

If you manage to get it done, let me know.

[Peter]

What about a Qzero with the Apollo 68080 core, rather than a new 68060 main board ?

There are various reasons why I'm reluctant with this. One if them is simple:

I asked on this forum if one of the Vampire owners could try QDOS Classic or Amiga QDOS with some QL software.
Just a first step to see if the Apollo core is able to correctly run QL code at all. Not even that happend.

When I started with TG68 and TG68K.C, I exprienced QL specific bugs that were not seen with Atari/Amiga code.
Those bugs took me very much time to locate, although the HDL source is open and I had help from Richard.
Should similar problems appear with the closed source Apollo, it's game over. And that risk is high.
It makes no sense to consider such a complex project at all, as long we don't even check the basic preconditions.

[Peter]

As for 68060 vs Vampire performance, there are also completely different figures, like this one about (un)packing in RAM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkolHCB26iE

Here the 68060 (Warp 1260) is slightly faster at the same clock rate. I wouldn't be surprised if QL style benchmarks give similar results.
The 68EC060RC75 can be overclocked to 100 MHz - not less than the Vampire core in a 700 € Apollo hardware.