Q68 Advance Notice

[daniel_baum]

That looks great. I am not usually an early adopter but I really want one of these...

One question; do I understand correctly that it runs older OS versions in addition to SMSQ/E?

Rgds,

D.

[Peter]

Reading the earlier spec, it appears that the PS/2 port is multiplexed between KB and Mouse.

Not multiplexed, it has two separate ports for keyboard and mouse. The signals for both ports are in one connector, using more pins.

Will the Q68 therefore use one of those KB/Mouse PS/2 splitter/Y-cable adapter that was popular on Toshiba & IBM laptops, way-back when?

Yes. The only difference is that those laptops had the mouse on the primary pins, while the Q68 has keyboard there.
This means, if you wish to use the Q68 with keyboard only, you don't need any splitter cable at all.

What about the speeds of the Serial and I2C interfaces?

The I2C bus speed depends just on software. At the moment it is only used to read the realtime clock at startup, no further drivers.

The Q68 serial port has been tested to run SERNET reliably up to 115200 Baud. The Q68 hardware itself can go much higher, but since reliability also depends on the counterpart and the application, I have not decided to officially give a higher spec.

[Peter]

One question; do I understand correctly that it runs older OS versions in addition to SMSQ/E?

You do understand correctly inasmuch I used Minerva and QDOS Classic on the Q68 before SMSQ/E was ported. For example the Q68 demonstration at Edinburgh was still with those two operating systems. However, both do not seem to offer any advantage over SMSQ/E. Unlikely that the extra work to complete, release and maintain them will happen anytime soon.

For example, the Q68 can run some old games like Spook and Cuthberth even unders SMSQ/E, using to the option to slow down the system by hardware. There are other old games which do not run on the Q68, but Minerva and QDOS Classic did not help with them anyway.

In the long run, I would like to have an optimized Minerva for the Q68, for sentimental reasons. But that's really just hobby. I guess SMSQ/E will be the only published operating system for the foreseeable future.

[martyn_hill]

Thanks Peter!

Reading the earlier spec, it appears that the PS/2 port is multiplexed between KB and Mouse.

Not multiplexed, it has two separate ports for keyboard and mouse. The signals for both ports are in one connector, using more pins.

Will the Q68 therefore use one of those KB/Mouse PS/2 splitter/Y-cable adapter that was popular on Toshiba & IBM laptops, way-back when?

Yes. The only difference is that those laptops had the mouse on the primary pins, while the Q68 has keyboard there.
This means, if you wish to use the Q68 with keyboard only, you don't need any splitter cable at all.

So, if one were to use one of those Y/splitter cables on the Q68, you'd switch the KB and Mouse and connect to the opposite to what is marked/embossed on the splitter?

[Peter]

If I understood Derek correctly, he'll supply splitter cables with Q68 specific labels.

[dilwyn]

If I understood Derek correctly, he'll supply splitter cables with Q68 specific labels.

Very helpful, Peter, thank you.
I am really looking forward to Q68 becoming available. While we do have some great QL emulators around, it will be really nice to get a real new hardware "QL" system later this year.

Thank you for your hard work bringing this to reality.

[robheaton]

Do you have any rough ideas on price?
Are we talking upper or lower hundreds of pounds?

[Outsoft]

This is the QL NEXT

Great idea!

[afx]

By the way, this is how the Q68 case prototype looks:

Q68inCase1.jpg

Q68inCase2.jpg

Another proposal for the Q68 case, boxes like these:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24461

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1555111

Boxes made with 6 pieces that snap together, made of crystal-clear acrylic, no screws.

[tofro]

Another proposal for the Q68 case, boxes like these:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24461

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1555111

Boxes made with 6 pieces that snap together, made of crystal-clear acrylic, no screws.

Nice.

But definitly not black enough.

Tobias